Jarrett J. Krosoczka: Why lunch ladies are heroes

Prevodilac: Nebojsa Kracun Lektor: Mile Živković

When my first children's book was published

Kada je moja prva knjiga za decu objavljena 2001. godine,

in 2001,

I returned to my old elementary school

vratio sam se u moju staru osnovnu školu

to talk to the students about being an author

da pričam sa učenicima o tome kako je biti pisac i ilustrator,

and an illustrator,

and when I was setting up my slide projector

i dok sam postavljao projektor u kantini,

in the cafetorium,

pogledao sam po prostoriji, tu je bila ona:

I looked across the room,

and there she was:

my old lunch lady.

moja stara školska kuvarica.

She was still there at the school

I dalje je bila u školi

and she was busily preparing lunches for the day.

i žurno je pripremala ručkove za taj dan.

So I approached her to say hello,

Prišao sam joj da je pozdravim, i rekao: "Hej, Džini, kako si?"

and I said, "Hi, Jeannie! How are you?"

And she looked at me, and I could tell

Pogledala me je

that she recognized me,

i mogao sam da vidim da me je prepoznala

but she couldn't quite place me, and she looked at me and she said,

ali nije bila sigurna, pa me je pogledala i rekla:

"Stephen Krosoczka?"

"Stiven Krozoska?"

I bio sam oduševljen što je znala da sam ja Krozoska

And I was amazed that she knew I was a Krosoczka,

but Stephen is my uncle who is 20 years older than I am,

ali Stiven je moj ujak koji je 20 godina stariji od mene

and she had been his lunch lady when he was a kid.

i ona je bila njegova školska kuvarica kad je bio dete.

And she started telling me about her grandkids,

I počela je da mi priča o svojim unucima

and that blew my mind.

i to me je oduševilo.

My lunch lady had grandkids,

Moja školska kuvarica je imala unuke,

and therefore kids,

i dakle decu,

and therefore left school at the end of the day?

i dakle odlazila iz škole na kraju dana?

Ja sam mislio da je ona živela u kantini sa kutlačama.

I thought she lived in the cafeteria

with the serving spoons.

I had never thought about any of that before.

I nikada pre nisam razmišljao o tome.

Well, that chance encounter inspired my imagination,

E pa, taj slučajni susret je inspirisao moju maštu,

and I created the Lunch Lady graphic novel series,

i napisao sam serijal grafičkih romana "Školska Kuvarica",

a series of comics about a lunch lady

serijal stripova o školskoj kuvarici

who uses her fish stick nunchucks

koja koristi svoje nunčake od ribljih fileta

to fight off evil cyborg substitutes,

da se bori protiv svojih zamena kiborga,

a school bus monster, and mutant mathletes,

čudovišta Školskog autobusa, matleta mutanata,

and the end of every book,

i na kraju svake knjige,

they get the bad guy with their hairnet,

uhvati negativca svojom mrežom za kosu

and they proclaim, "Justice is served!"

i uzvikne: "Pravda je poslužena!"

(Laughter) (Applause)

(Smeh) (Aplauz)

And it's been amazing, because the series

I ovo je bilo neverovatno jer je serijal

was so welcomed into the reading lives of children,

bio toliko prihvaćen u čitalački život dece

and they sent me the most amazing letters

i oni su mi slali neverovatna pisma,

and cards and artwork.

čestitke i slike.

And I would notice as I would visit schools,

I ja bih primetio kada bih posetio škole,

the lunch staff would be involved in the programming

osoblje u kuhinji bi učestvovalo u programu

in a very meaningful way.

na veoma smislen način,

And coast to coast,

i od obale do obale,

all of the lunch ladies told me the same thing:

sve školske kuvarice su mi rekle istu stvar:

"Thank you for making a superhero in our likeness."

"Hvala ti što si stvorio superheroja prema našem liku."

Because the lunch lady has not been treated

Zato što se prema školskim kuvaricama nije odnosilo

very kindly in popular culture over time.

veoma ljubazno u popularnoj kulturi tokom vremena.

But it meant the most to Jeannie.

Ali to je najviše značilo Džini.

When the books were first published,

Kad su knjige prvi put objavljene,

I invited her to the book launch party,

pozvao sam je na žurku povodom objavljivanja knjige

and in front of everyone there,

i pred svima tamo, svima koje je hranila tokom godina,

everyone she had fed over the years,

I gave her a piece of artwork and some books.

dao sam joj jedno umetničko delo i neke knjige.

And two years after this photo was taken,

I dve godine pošto je ovo slikano

she passed away,

ona je umrla i bio sam na njenom bdenju

and I attended her wake,

and nothing could have prepared me for what I saw there,

i ništa nije moglo da me pripremi na ono što sam tamo video,

because next to her casket was this painting,

jer pored njenog kovčega je bila ova slika

and her husband told me it meant so much to her

i njen muž mi je rekao da joj je mnogo značilo

that I had acknowledged her hard work,

to što sam ja odao priznanje njenom teškom radu

I had validated what she did.

i što sam potvrdio ono što je radila.

And that inspired me to create a day

I to me je inspirisalo da stvorim dan

where we could recreate that feeling

kada možemo da rekreiramo taj osećaj

in cafeterias across the country:

u kantinama širom zemlje:

School Lunch Hero Day, a day where kids

Dan Školske kuvarice heroja,

dan kada deca kreiraju kreativne projekte za osoblje kantine,

can make creative projects for their lunch staff.

And I partnered with the School Nutrition Association,

i udružio sam se sa Školskom asocijacijom za ishranu.

and did you know that a little over 30 million kids

Da li ste znali da nešto više od 30 miliona dece učestvuje

participate in school lunch programs every day.

u školskom programu za ručak svakog dana?

That equals up to a little over five billion lunches

To znači da se nešto više od 5 milijardi ručkova

made every school year.

napravi svake godine.

And the stories of heroism go well beyond

I priče o heroizmu idu daleko dalje

just a kid getting a few extra chicken nuggets

od toga da dete dobije nekoliko pilećih fileta na svojoj tacni.

on their lunch tray.

There is Ms. Brenda in California,

Tu je gđa. Brenda iz Kalifornije,

who keeps a close eye on every student that comes through her line

koja pomno prati svakog đaka koji prođe pored nje

and then reports back to the guidance counselor

i obaveštava školskog psihologa

if anything is amiss.

ako nešto nije u redu.

There are the lunch ladies in Kentucky

Tu su školske kuvarice iz Kentakija

who realized that 67 percent of their students

koje su primetile da se 67% đaka oslanjalo na te obroke svakog dana

relied on those meals every day,

and they were going without food over the summer,

i da oni nisu imali hrane tokom leta

so they retrofitted a school bus

pa su one preuredile školski autobus

to create a mobile feeding unit,

u mobilnu jedinicu za obroke,

and they traveled around the neighborhoods

i obilazile su susedstva,

feedings 500 kids a day during the summer.

hraneći 500 dece svakog dana tokom leta.

And kids made the most amazing projects.

I deca su napravila neverovatne projekte.

I knew they would.

Znao sam da hoće.

Kids made hamburger cards

Deca su pravila čestitke hamburgere od hamera u boji.

that were made out of construction paper.

They took photos of their lunch lady's head

Lepili su slike likova školskih kuvarica

and plastered it onto my cartoon lunch lady

na moj crtež školske kuvarice

and fixed that to a milk carton

i to stavljali na pakovanje od mleka

and presented them with flowers.

i zatim im ih poklanjali sa cvećem.

And they made their own comics,

I pravili su svoje stripove

starring the cartoon lunch lady

sa mojom školskom kuvaricom

alongside their actual lunch ladies.

uz koju su bile njihove školske kuvarice.

And they made thank you pizzas,

I pravili su pice zahvalnosti,

where every kid signed a different topping

gde je svako dete potpisivalo drugi prilog

of a construction paper pizza.

koji je bio deo konstrukcije pice.

For me, I was so moved by the response

Ja sam bio ganut odzivom

that came from the lunch ladies,

koji je došao od školskih kuvarica

because one woman said to me, she said,

jer mi je jedna od njih rekla:

"Before this day, I felt like I was

"Pre ovog dana, osećala sam se

at the end of the planet at this school.

kao da sam na kraju sveta u ovoj školi.

I didn't think that anyone noticed us down here."

Mislila sam da nas niko nije primećivao ovde dole."

Another woman said to me,

Druga žena mi je rekla:

"You know, what I got out of this

"Znaš, iz ovoga sam shvatila

is that what I do is important."

da je ovo što ja radim važno."

And of course what she does is important.

I naravno da je to što ona radi važno.

What they all do is important.

Sve što one rade je važno.

They're feeding our children every single day,

One hrane našu decu svakog dana,

and before a child can learn,

i pre nego što deca mogu da uče,

their belly needs to be full,

njihov stomak treba da bude pun,

and these women and men

i ove žene i muškarci

are working on the front lines to create

rade na prvim linijama u kreiranju

an educated society.

obrazovanog društva.

So I hope that

Tako da se nadam da ne čekate

you don't wait for School Lunch Hero Day

na Dan Školske kuvarice heroja

to say thank you to your lunch staff,

da kažete hvala vašem osoblju u kuhinji,

and I hope that you remember

i nadam se da ćete se setiti

how powerful a thank you can be.

koliko moćno jedno "hvala" može biti.

A thank you can change a life.

Jedno "hvala" može promeniti život.

It changes the life of the person who receives it,

Ono menja život osobe koja ga prima,

and it changes the life of the person

i menja život osobe

who expresses it.

koja ga daje.

Thank you.

Hvala.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)