TED | 为什么食堂大妈是英雄？

演讲精彩片段（节选）欣赏

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.

从东海岸到西海岸，所有的食堂大妈都对我说着同样的话：“感谢你把像我们这样的人塑造成了英雄”。因为食堂大妈在很长一段时间里，在主流文化中并未得到友善的对待。

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.

但它对珍妮意义重大，当书第一次出版时，我邀请她参加新书发布的午餐派对，当着在场的所有人面前，这么多年来她服务了的这些人，我给她了一件艺术作品和一些书籍。

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.

在这张照片之后的两年，她去世了，我参加了她的葬礼，我完全没有为我会看到的东西做好准备，因为紧靠着她的骨灰盒的就是那幅画。她丈夫告诉我这幅画对她意义重大，因为我见证了她的努力工作，我见证了她的所作所为。

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.

于是我想设立特别的一天，在这一天里，我们可以重新感受那种在食堂里的那种感觉 在校园食堂英雄日里，孩子们可以给他们的食堂服务人员带去惊喜。同时，我与校园营养组织合作，你们也知道大约超过三千万的孩子，每天都参与了这个学校午餐计划，着就想当于大约学校每年准备50亿份午餐。

And the stories of heroism go well beyond just a kid getting a few extra chicken nuggets on their lunch tray.

英雄般的事迹已经远远不止，一个孩子在他的餐盘中多得到一些鸡块。

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.

在加利福尼亚州有一位叫布兰达的女士，她时刻关注排在她的队里的学生，如果有任何事不对劲，她就会向指导顾问汇报。

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.

在肯塔基州的食堂大妈们，她们意识到有67%的学生，每天靠她们提供的伙食维生，而夏天放假时他们就只好饿肚子，于是她们改装了一辆校车，让校车变成了一个移动的食品站，她们在社区里穿行，在那个夏天她们一共帮助了500个孩子。

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.

孩子们完成了一个最完美的项目，我知道他们会的，孩子们制作了汉堡包卡片，卡片是用建筑用纸制作的，他们把食堂大妈的大头贴，贴在我的那本关于食堂大妈的卡通书里，并且固定到牛奶盒上，还用鲜花装裱。

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.

于是他们制作出了他们自己的漫画书，主演就是漫画中的食堂大妈以及他们现实生活中的食堂大妈。他们还作了比萨以表示感谢每个孩子都在用建筑用纸，做成的比萨饼上 涂上了不同的配料。

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.”

对我而言，我被来自食堂大妈们的反响所感动，因为有一位女士曾对我说：“在今天以前，我感觉自己在学校的一个最不起眼的小角落，我并不认为有谁会注意到我们”，另一位女士则说“你知道吗，我从中认识到我的所作所为是重要的”

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.

的确，她在做着重要的工作，她们都从事着有意义的工作。她们每天为我们的孩子提供食物，在一个孩子能学习之前，他的胃需要填饱。而这些工作人员都奋斗在创造一个富有教育的社会的前线。

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园食堂英雄日才对食堂员工表达你的谢意，并且我希望大家能记住一句谢谢所具有的强大力量。一句谢谢可以使生活发生改变，它改变了接受它的人的生活，也改变了表达它的人的生活。