When my first children's book was published in 2001, I returned to my old elementary school to talk to the students about being an author and an illustrator, and when I was setting up my slide projector in the cafetorium, I looked across the room, and there she was: my old lunch lady. She was still there at the school and she was busily preparing lunches for the day. So I approached her to say hello, and I said, "Hi, Jeannie! How are you?" And she looked at me, and I could tell that she recognized me, but she couldn't quite place me, and she looked at me and she said, "Stephen Krosoczka?" And I was amazed that she knew I was a Krosoczka, but Stephen is my uncle who is 20 years older than I am, and she had been his lunch lady when he was a kid. And she started telling me about her grandkids, and that blew my mind. My lunch lady had grandkids, and therefore kids, and therefore left school at the end of the day? I thought she lived in the cafeteria with the serving spoons. I had never thought about any of that before.
Ketika buku cerita anak-anak saya pertama kali diterbitkan pada 2001, saya mengunjungi SD saya dulu untuk berbicara pada murid-murid tentang profesi penulis dan ilustrator, dan ketika saya mempersiapkan proyektor di aula kafetaria sekolah, saya melihat ke seberang ruangan, dan dia ada disana: ibu kantin saya dulu. Dia masih bekerja di sana dan dia sedang menyiapkan makan siang untuk hari itu. Saya mendekat dan menyapanya, Halo Jeannie! Apa kabar? Dia melihat saya, saya cukup yakin dia mengenali saya tapi dia tidak yakin siapa saya. Dia menatap saya dan berkata, "Stephen Krosoczka?" Saya terkejut dia tahu bahwa saya dari keluarga Krosoczka, tapi Stephen adalah paman saya yang 20 tahun lebih tua dari saya, dan dia adalah ibu kantin ketika paman saya masih kecil. Kemudian dia mulai bercerita tentang cucu-cucunya, saya cukup terkejut. Ibu kantin saya punya cucu-cucu, punya anak-anak, dan karena itu dia harus pulang ketika jam sekolah usai? Saya kira dia tinggal di kantin dengan sendok saji Saya tidak pernah menyangka sebelumnya. Pertemuan itu menginspirasi saya,
Well, that chance encounter inspired my imagination, and I created the Lunch Lady graphic novel series, a series of comics about a lunch lady who uses her fish stick nunchucks to fight off evil cyborg substitutes, a school bus monster, and mutant mathletes, and the end of every book, they get the bad guy with their hairnet, and they proclaim, "Justice is served!"
sehingga saya menciptakan serial komik "Lunch Lady" [Ibu Kantin], serial komik tentang ibu kantin yang menggunakan nunchaku ikan untuk melawan robot jahat, monster bus sekolah, ahli matematika mutan, dan di setiap akhir seri, mereka meringkus penjahat dengan jaring sanggulnya, kemudian berseru, "Keadilan telah disajikan!"
(Laughter) (Applause)
(Tertawa) (Tepuk tangan)
And it's been amazing, because the series was so welcomed into the reading lives of children, and they sent me the most amazing letters and cards and artwork. And I would notice as I would visit schools, the lunch staff would be involved in the programming in a very meaningful way. And coast to coast, all of the lunch ladies told me the same thing: "Thank you for making a superhero in our likeness." Because the lunch lady has not been treated very kindly in popular culture over time. But it meant the most to Jeannie. When the books were first published, I invited her to the book launch party, and in front of everyone there, everyone she had fed over the years, I gave her a piece of artwork and some books. And two years after this photo was taken, she passed away, and I attended her wake, and nothing could have prepared me for what I saw there, because next to her casket was this painting, and her husband told me it meant so much to her that I had acknowledged her hard work, I had validated what she did.
Dan serial ini sangat menakjubkan, karena diterima secara luas oleh anak-anak dan mereka mengirimkan surat-surat, kartu, dan hasil karya yang hebat. Ketika saya berkunjung ke sekolah, saya mengamati staf kantin terlibat dalam program dalam berbagai cara yang berarti. Di seluruh Amerika, semua ibu-ibu kantin mengatakan hal yang sama pada saya: "Terima kasih karena telah membuat kami menjadi tokoh pahlawan super." Ibu-ibu kantin selama ini tidak dicerminkan dengan baik dalam karya populer. Tapi serial ini sangat berarti bagi Jeannie. Ketika seri buku ini dirilis, saya mengundangnya ke acara peluncuran buku, dan di hadapan semua hadirin yang dilayaninya selama bertahun-tahun, saya memberikan satu karya seni dan beberapa buku. Dua tahun setelah foto ini diambil, beliau meninggal dunia, dan saya menghadiri pemakamannya, dan saya tidak dapat percaya apa yang saya lihat di sana, di samping peti jenazah, ada gambar ini, dan suami beliau berkata bahwa ini sangat berarti bagi beliau bahwa saya mengapresiasi kerja kerasnya, dan mengakui yang telah beliau lakukan.
And that inspired me to create a day where we could recreate that feeling in cafeterias across the country: School Lunch Hero Day, a day where kids can make creative projects for their lunch staff. And I partnered with the School Nutrition Association, and did you know that a little over 30 million kids participate in school lunch programs every day. That equals up to a little over five billion lunches made every school year.
Ini menginspirasi saya agar suatu saat kita bisa menghidupkan kembali perasaan itu di seluruh kantin di negara ini: Hari Pahlawan Makan Siang satu hari di mana anak-anak dapat menciptakan suatu kreasi untuk staf kantin. Saya bekerjasama dengan Asosiasi Nutrisi Sekolah dan tahukah Anda bahwa lebih dari 30 juta anak turut serta dalam program ini tiap hari. Ini setara dengan 5 milyar makan siang yang disajikan
And the stories of heroism go well beyond just a kid getting a few extra chicken nuggets on their lunch tray. There is Ms. Brenda in California, who keeps a close eye on every student that comes through her line and then reports back to the guidance counselor if anything is amiss. There are the lunch ladies in Kentucky who realized that 67 percent of their students relied on those meals every day, and they were going without food over the summer, so they retrofitted a school bus to create a mobile feeding unit, and they traveled around the neighborhoods feedings 500 kids a day during the summer.
tiap tahunnya. Kisah kepahlawanan ini lebih dari sekedar potongan ayam ekstra yang didapat anak di makan siang mereka. Ini Ibu Brenda di California, yang selalu memperhatikan setiap siswa yang mengantre dan melapor pada guru BK jika ada yang tidak datang. Ibu kantin di Kentucky mencatat 67% siswanya bergantung pada makanan yang mereka sajikan tiap hari, dan mereka tidak makan selama musim panas jadi mereka merombak bus sekolah untuk membuat semacam kedai makanan, keliling di area sekitar
And kids made the most amazing projects. I knew they would. Kids made hamburger cards that were made out of construction paper. They took photos of their lunch lady's head and plastered it onto my cartoon lunch lady and fixed that to a milk carton and presented them with flowers. And they made their own comics, starring the cartoon lunch lady alongside their actual lunch ladies. And they made thank you pizzas, where every kid signed a different topping of a construction paper pizza.
memberi makan 500 anak tiap hari selama musim panas Anak-anak membuat karya-karya luar biasa. Saya tahu itu. Anak-anak membuat kartu hamburger dari kertas warna-warni. Mereka mengambil foto wajah ibu kantin, menambalnya pada kartun karakter saya dan menempelnya pada kotak susu dan mempersembahkannya dengan bunga. Mereka juga membuat komik sendiri, dengan karakter ibu kantin saya bersama dengan ibu kantin mereka. Mereka membuat pizza terima kasih, setiap anak menulis di setiap taburan
For me, I was so moved by the response that came from the lunch ladies, because one woman said to me, she said, "Before this day, I felt like I was at the end of the planet at this school. I didn't think that anyone noticed us down here." Another woman said to me, "You know, what I got out of this is that what I do is important."
dan membentuk pizza dari kertas. Saya sangat tersentuh dengan tanggapan dari para ibu kantin, seorang ibu berkata pada saya, "Sebelum hari ini, saya merasa berada di planet asing di sekolah ini. Tidak ada orang yang menyadari kehadiran kami." Ada seorang ibu lain yang berkata, "Tahukah Anda, saya akhirnya menyadari
And of course what she does is important. What they all do is important. They're feeding our children every single day, and before a child can learn, their belly needs to be full, and these women and men are working on the front lines to create an educated society.
betapa berartinya profesi saya." Tentu yang ia lakukan sangat berharga Yang mereka lakukan sangat berharga. Mereka memberi makan anak-anak kita setiap hari dan sebelum seorang anak dapat belajar, perut mereka tidak boleh kosong, dan orang-orang inilah yang bekerja di garis depan untuk
So I hope that you don't wait for School Lunch Hero Day to say thank you to your lunch staff, and I hope that you remember how powerful a thank you can be. A thank you can change a life. It changes the life of the person who receives it, and it changes the life of the person who expresses it.
menciptakan komunitas berpendidikan. Jadi saya harap Anda tidak menunggu sampai "Hari Pahlawan Makan Siang" untuk berterima kasih pada staf kantin, dan saya harap Anda selalu ingat betapa berharganya ucapan terima kasih. Ucapan terima kasih dapat mengubah hidup orang-orang yang menerimanya, dan mengubah hidup orang
Thank you.
yang mengucapkannya.
(Applause)
Terima kasih.