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.
當我的第一本童書 在 2001 年出版時, 我回到我的小學 和學生交流, 談論了身為作家和插畫家的經歷。 當我正在準備我的投影機時, 就在學校餐廳大禮堂, 我望了一下禮堂內, 我看到了她, 我小時候的午餐阿姨。 那時候,她仍然在學校服務。 她當時正忙著準備著當天的午餐。 我走向她,並向她打聲招呼。 我對她說:「嗨,金妮!你好嗎?」 然後她望著我, 我知道她大概認出我來, 但她好像不太確定。 然後,她看著我說: 「史蒂芬・古莎斯卡?」 然後,我很驚訝 她還記得我姓古莎斯卡。 但是,史蒂芬是我叔叔, 他比我整整大了 20歲。 他還小的時候,她也是他的午餐阿姨。 她開始告訴我她孫子們的事, 這一切實在太震撼了! 我的午餐阿姨竟然有孫子, 這表示她有兒女,也表示 她每晚都會下班離開學校? 我一直以為她住在學校餐廳和湯匙當室友, 我以前從來沒想過有這些事情。
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!"
所以,那一次的機緣 激發了我的想像力, 我創作了一系列漫畫小說:午餐俠女。 這一系列的漫畫 是關於一位午餐阿姨, 她會用她的麥香魚雙截棍 打擊邪惡的機器人、 一個校車怪獸以及變種數學家。 每本書的結局都是, 她們會用廚娘網帽,逮捕犯人。 然後,她們會大聲高呼: 「正義上菜!」
(Laughter) (Applause)
( 笑聲和掌聲 )
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.
這一切實在太酷了! 因為一直以來這一系列, 在孩子的閱讀世界裡很受歡迎。 孩子們寄給我看過最棒的信件、 卡片以及畫作。 然後,當我參訪學校時我會注意到 餐廳員工會一同參與活動, 以一種很有意義的方式參與。 從東岸到西岸, 所有的午餐阿姨 都告訴我一樣的事情。 感謝你以我們的形象 打造一個超級英雄。 因為,午餐阿姨們在過去都沒有 被主流社會好好對待過。 但對於金妮最為特別, 當漫畫第一次出版時, 我邀請她參加新書出版派對。 當時在眾人的面前, 所有她所服務過的人們, 我送給她一幅畫作和一些書籍。 拍完這張照片的兩年後, 她過世了。 我參加了她的告別式。 我完全沒想到 會在告別式看到一樣東西, 因為,在她的棺木旁邊 放的就是這幅畫。 她先生告訴我, 這幅畫對她意義非凡。 因為我看到她的工作表現。
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.
我肯定她所付出的一切。 這件事啟發我打造一個紀念日, 讓我們大家可以重溫那份感覺, 就在全國各地的學校餐廳裡: 「校園午餐英雄日」。 這一天,小朋友們會做一些創意作品 送給他們的餐廳員工。 我也與「校園營養協會」合作。 你們是否知道有超過 30 萬個兒童, 每天參加學校的營養午餐。 每一年大約超過 50 億份午餐,
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.
來自全美各校。 這些英雄故事不僅僅只是 小朋友在午餐盤上多拿到一些雞塊。 有一位在加州的布蘭達女士, 她會注意每一個她所服務的學生, 然後回報給輔導員 學生有任何不對勁的地方。 有一群位於肯塔基州的午餐阿姨們, 她們發現 67% 的學生 每天必須依靠這一頓午餐。 而這些學生在暑假時,沒東西吃。 所以,她們改裝了一台校車, 打造了一個移動供應站 在周圍社區穿行, 在暑假時,她們一天餵養 500 個小朋友。
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.
小朋友做了全世界最棒的勞作, 我早就知道,他們很棒的。 小朋友製作了漢堡卡片, 用勞作紙製作而成。 他們拍了一張張午餐阿姨的大頭照, 接上我漫畫「午餐俠女」的身體, 然後貼在牛奶盒上 和花朵一起展示。 他們自創自己的漫畫, 主要演員為「午餐俠女」, 以及他們現實生活中的午餐阿姨。 他們製作了「感恩比薩」, 小朋友為每一個不同的配料上簽名, 在一個個勞作紙做成的比薩上面。
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."
對我而言,我好感動地 看到午餐阿姨們的反應。 因為,有一位女士跟我說, 在今天以前,我總覺得 自己置身於學校的邊緣角落。 我不覺得會有人注意到我們。 另一位女士則告訴我, 你知道嗎,我透過這個活動, 了解到我的工作如此重要。
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.
她的工作當然很重要, 她們所從事的一切如此有意義。 每一天,她們為我們的孩子提供食物。 在孩子開始學習之前, 他們的肚子需要填飽。 而這些工作人員, 就在最前線工作, 並打造一個深具教育意義的社會。
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.
因此,我希望 大家不必等到校園午餐英雄日, 才對餐廳員工表達你的謝意。 我也希望您會記得, 一份感謝是多麼有力量。 一份感謝可以改變一個人生。 感謝不只改變接受方的人生, 也能改變致謝方的人生。
Thank you.
謝謝大家。
(Applause)
( 掌聲 )