B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Highlights More Than 275 Million Free School Meals Served Across the State

Governor Kathy Hochul today highlighted that within just the first six months of the school year, 275 million free school meals have been served in schools statewide. The Governor celebrated this milestone today during National School Breakfast Week alongside students and administrators at the Albany School of Humanities.

B-ROLL of the Governor eating breakfast with students at the Albany School of Humanities is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning,  everybody. Great to see everyone.

[...]

Wonderful to be back at the Albany School of Humanities. We were in this very room a few years ago when we talked about our "Back to Basics" initiative to remove ourselves from 20 years of teaching literacy the wrong way. And we announced here that we are setting the state on the right path, and I'm proud to know that has been happening.

I want to say that Albany embraced the right way to do it years before everybody else, so kudos to Albany. And to all those who are here today, I want to thank, first of all, our School Superintendent, Joseph Hochreiter. We've been together many times, many occasions, and your innovative leadership and approach to education has been a reason I come back so often to celebrate what Albany does - very proud of what you do here. Of course, it's great to have a principal here. I saw a lot of them when I was growing up, sometimes in their offices, but that's another story. Marie Culihan, our Principal for the School of Humanities.

And always good to see our Mayor who has hit the ground running, Mayor Dorcey Applyrs, the City of Albany. And my colleagues in state government: our great Senator, Pat Fahy, she sees me at many, many events because we're local here, and same with Assemblymember Gabriella Romero. And I have two special guests here who are very involved in the initiative I'm talking about here today, and that is Senator Michelle Hinchey and Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas. So, what I want to talk about is the fact that we're very focused on the best outcomes for our school children. And part of that was making sure they're taught the right way in their curriculum - we've dealt with that issue - the other part was the cell phone ban.

And as I talked to the young people all around the state, I am actually shocked how many come up to me unsolicited and say that they didn't like it at first, and they were mad at me at the beginning, but now they're saying, "I'm making real friends in person and we're playing games. We're playing cards, we're playing bingo, we're playing all kinds of things together." Playing chess during lunch and study hall, and actually creating friendships and human interactions that were nonexistent for 10 years of students being absorbed only in the palm of their hand as they looked at their cell phones.

I am so proud of what we've done there, and I know that the teachers are grateful that they have a class where they're actually paying attention to the teacher instead of TikTok dance videos. We're going to continue our focus on young people, but no matter how we teach, no matter how thoughtful we've been about smartphones - as a mom, I know this - kids just can't learn on an empty stomach. It is a distraction. Think about adults. You get the hangries late in the afternoon if you don't get that Snickers candy bar or whatever you eat.

But think about our kids who don't have access. They can't walk into a kitchen and get something to eat when they're hungry. And I've believed for a long time that this creates anxiety, and children who are food insecure at home, they tend to have lower standardized scores. And so, it's a burden they carry for their entire lives, and they're more likely to drop out of school and make less money. And in the wealthiest nation in the world, there should be no excuses, no reason why any child should not be able to have a full stomach all the way through the entire school day. And that's why I made a promise last year that every child, every school, would have food from breakfast to lunch and not have to worry about the cost for their families.

So we fought, we got this done. I worked with our legislators, who you'll be hearing from in a few minutes, but we launched our universal school meals program in September, and I'm so proud to say that just since September, we've served more than 275 million free meals. I just had some -

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I just had breakfast with some really smart kids, some four year olds and five year olds, and some fourth graders, and they're all telling me how exciting it was. I even had a chance to open up a little syrup for one of the children - made me feel like I was useful again as a mom. And they're all so adorable. But I knew that as they left there after having their carrots, and their bananas and their french toast, that they would not have a hungry stomach during the day, and they'd come back again and have lunch later. So that just made me feel - as a mom and as a Governor - just so much better that I know this is going on in schools all over the state, that we've taken away that factor: that kids who come from families where the food is expensive or their food insecure, they don't have to deal with that stress. And so now they can focus on learning and making friends.

And it's also beneficial for the parents. I mean, you think about the savings - this is what I was touting as part of our affordability agenda last year. The savings are about $165 per month per child, over $1,600 per year per child. So that's money back in their pockets. I mean, that could be a mortgage payment. That could help toward child care costs, or car payments or utility bills. And, coincidentally, that $1,600 is almost the same amount of money that families had to pay more this year because of the Trump tariff taxes - about $1,700 we're estimating from that. Just so you know, as an aside, I've demanded the money be returned to the people of New York, $13.5 billion - it's $1,700 per household, so let's try to get this back.

[...]

But back to school lunches. On top of the savings from the school lunches, our affordability agenda continues. When people are paying their taxes, they now know that middle class tax rates are the lowest they've been in 70 years. This is the first year that parents will benefit from the child tax credit, which when I first became Governor was zero for children under the age of four, now it is $1,000. And so that is dramatic progress - tripling the child tax credit, and also the inflation rebate checks that have been out.

And so we've been focused on putting money back in people's pockets in countless ways, in countless ways, which is why we're focusing on other issues such as car insurance and other areas where people are just paying way too much. So I want to put that back in people's pockets and let people know that we're giving people not just money back in their pockets, but as I heard when one dad came up to me on the street when I was walking, he says, "Governor, you gave me back an hour of my day."

I said, "What are you talking about? How'd I give you back an hour in your day?"

He says, "I used to have to be the one who had to get the kids up early, I made their breakfast and then I had to pack the school lunches and run out and get the groceries to buy the school lunch." He goes, "Thank you for giving me the gift of time." So that is priceless as well.

So in New York, we're going to continue fighting because your family is my fight. I'm going to do whatever I can to protect all the little kids throughout the state, and it starts with making sure that they start the school day with a full stomach ready and eager to learn. So thank you to everybody who's been involved in this effort. Again, congratulations.

And also someone who's been a strong supporter from the very beginning, our two legislators, Senator Michelle Hinchey as well as Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas who were an important part of the conversations to make sure this became a reality.

So let's hear from Senator Hinchey. Thank you.

Contact the Governor's Press Office