B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Free Breakfast and Lunch for Over 2.7 Million Students in New York as Part of the 2025 State of the State

B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Free Breakfast and Lunch for Over 2.7 Million Students in New York as Part of the 2025 State of the State

Earlier today, as her fifth proposal for the 2025 State of the State Affordability Agenda, Governor Kathy Hochul announced a historic initiative to ensure every single one of New York's over 2.7 million students can receive breakfast and lunch for free at school. This monumental program will help save parents money, address food insecurity among New York kids, and create more opportunities for students to succeed. Free school meals are estimated to save families $165 per child in grocery spending each month and have been shown to support learning, boost test scores, and improve attendance and classroom behavior. Governor Hochul unveiled the proposal on Long Island at Westbury Middle School, a district that has seen first-hand how universal free meals have improved outcomes for students and families.

B-ROLL: B-roll of Governor Hochul meeting with students in the cafeteria of Westbury Middle School 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. Great to be back in Westbury at the Westbury Middle School. Please sit down. Please sit down.

We're here for one reason - that's to make sure that our children have the best possible outcome in life. And here on Long Island, we have some of the most extraordinary schools, teachers, administrators and very engaged parents.

But there's one thing that can affect your child's development, and that is whether or not they're getting a healthy meal every single day. And I want to make sure that every child in the State of New York has the same healthy start that they've had here for years at Westbury School District where they understood how important it was to provide free breakfast and lunch for the children.

So, I want to commend this school for being the model - this school district for being the model for others, because the rest of the state will now do what you do. And the leadership here, I want to thank them. We have Principal Jaggon, the Principal of the middle school, who's got a big job on her hands. And I want to thank Dionne for all the work that's being done here. Robert Troiano, the President of the Westbury School Board. I want to thank all of you. All of you are part of the administration, thank you. The principals, the vice principals, and everybody - how important you are.

Also, we have great partners in government here. You have a brand-new Senator, let's have our Senator, Siela Bynoe stand up; Assemblymember Chuck Levine, who's welcomed me here to his district countless times, thank you; Senator Dean Murray has joined us, Senator Murray. Assemblymember Judy Griffin, thank you; another new member of the Legislature, Noah Burroughs, are you here Noah? I thought he was here. Okay, let's give him a shout out.

And guests from afar, we have Senator Michelle Hinchey, who has come from the Hudson Valley, and Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas - these two individuals have been championing this cause. I want to thank them, thank both of them.

And you're going to be hearing from Liz Accles and others to talk about their involvement in this, and Isabella Lomax, I want to thank you for representing the moms and dads of this district and across the state.

When a child grows up hungry, that carries with them the rest of their life. It's this sense of insecurity, of never feeling fully nourished in spirit or mind. It's hard for kids to focus. It's hard for adults to focus. Anybody ever get hangries? Okay, it has an effect on your mood, right? If you don't have a full stomach right before the next meal, you start feeling the blood sugar drop. Imagine starting off your day like that when you're expected to sit in a classroom, give your teacher full attention - and they need to be doing that - or talking to other kids or engaging, but you're still hungry. You have that gnawing ache in your stomach because it just didn't happen at home and it may not be happening at lunch for you.

And they actually say that children who do not have proper food, they have food insecurity, it affects them later in life. They're more likely to suffer from heart disease as adults. They score lower on standardized tests. The correlation is so obvious to us as adults. And I'll say this, in the wealthiest country in the world, this can no longer be tolerated, not in America and definitely not in the great State of New York. No more.

That's why it's part of my 2025 State of the State agenda. I'm still working on the speech, a lot of long nights, but it's worthwhile. But that's next Tuesday and I want to make sure we give a strong statement of our priorities and who we are and who we're fighting for. And we're fighting for every child in the State of New York to have the best outcome in life.

So, we are going to be talking about ensuring that New York State has the universal school breakfast and lunch program launched everywhere. The data is clear: It sets our kids up for a life of positivity, engagement with others, instead of sitting in the back of the class ignoring that gnawing pain. It's hard for kids. And I will also say this, historically, it is our kids who qualify - their parents qualify based on income - who have been eligible in many school districts, but not this one. The stigma is real. The stigma is real for every child. When we first proposed this, I said, "Well, some parents can afford to do this," but you have to understand the psychology, especially in a middle school or high school. My God, the pressure is intense.

Everything is watched with their cell phones - we'll get to that another time. You know, kids are taking pictures of what someone's wearing today and mocking them out. These are not my words, these are from teenagers. I've sat with hundreds of teenagers over the last year and a half. There's a lot of pressure on kids, but to have to be singled out and have your classmates know that you are the one that has to get subsidized help for your meals, that's a mark on you. Our kids don't need that, right? They don't need that. Life is hard enough for our kids these days. So, I don't want them to have the stigma when they get a reduced-price lunch or a free meal. And they shouldn't have to choose from going hungry or being embarrassed among their peers and their friends. A free lunch, free breakfast, gives families a fighting chance.

And also, from the parents' point of view, as a mom who's spent countless hours packing up the lunches in the morning when the kids were younger - I made them do it themselves when they were a little bit older. In fact, I made my kids wash their laundry at an age that I realized was too young because they mixed reds and whites, and my son had pink baseball pants one day. But he did his own laundry.

But the time back for parents is priceless. The time to make sure you've got - whether you're sending kids to school with lunchables, which my mom used to do sometimes, or families used to do, or to have to take the time to make the peanut butter and jelly and put all the food in there and make sure you've got everything the night before, because if you forgot something, you've got to run out and get it. You don't have to worry about that anymore. No parent has to have that time taken away from them in those early morning hours to make sure that your child has their lunch packed.

And it's also money out of your pocket if your kids are buying lunch. We've calculated the savings is $2,000 a year per child in savings. Think about that. The money that's not being spent on food for them. So, this is a game changer. This is absolutely a game changer. And I'm also thinking about all the tasks that parents have to deal with in the morning. There's a lot involved. No other Governor has said they've been a mom before because they haven't been. There's never been a mom-Governor, right? I know a lot of dads are helpful, I get it. It's not about moms versus dads. There's a lot of single-family households out there. And moms have enough to do.

So, this would have been a big game changer in our own family. But I also want to talk about how not just this, but we're finding every way possible to put money back in the pockets of New Yorkers, and especially parents because we know it's been happening. You're working hard every single day, but inflation goes up. No one could have seen inflation coming, right? You didn't save enough money to deal with the cost of everything - the eggs and the groceries going up. The milk, the diapers, the formula, little kids sneakers, the clothes they outgrow every three months. I'm a grandma of a little one. I'm buying her outfits every three months.

It's hard for people. So, we're making a lot of changes. First of all, we're increasing the minimum wage and tagging to inflation. So when inflation goes up, your paycheck goes up. We started that. It went into effect this January.

I noticed this when I first became Governor. We had a child tax credit - that's nice, $330 for children ages four and up. Really? You think it's easy, cheap to raise kids who have newborns and babies? And I mentioned the diapers and formulas and the clothes. More than ever, the parents of the youngest ones need the most money, right?

And that might be when one parent had to take time off a job. I couldn't work because I couldn't find child care. I wasn't earning a lot, but it cut our income in half. I know that struggle. So I said, "Let's give more money to parents with the littlest kids." And I'm announcing in my State of the State next week, for every child that's under the age of four, there'll be $1,000 back for their parents in a tax rebate. One thousand dollars.

You have a couple of kids, like I did, a couple of kids that are under the age of four a long time ago. That's $2,000. When I tell parents that, I can't tell you how grateful they feel, that someone's actually listening to them and understands the stressor and what that money would mean to them every single day. Less stress in paying the bills, maybe help them pay rent a little more. The grocery bill doesn't have to seem so daunting. That stack of bills at the end of the month, you don't have to fear quite as much. We have to give that to New Yorkers.

And also, because of inflation - I mentioned it - everything you bought for the last few years has gone up. But also because prices went up, the sales tax went up. That meant the State of New York collected more than we ever imagined in sales tax. $3 billion more, one time only. And for some who say, "Let's put that into these long-term programs," I can't guarantee that's going to be there every year, because I want inflation to go down.

This is a one-time opportunity to say, "Whose money is this? Does it belong to the state, or does it belong back in your pocket where it was taken from because of inflation?" I say it belongs in your pocket. And that's $500 for families back in their pockets. And I'm hearing some critics that say, you know somebody that you represent who doesn't want it, let me know. I'm sure I'll have no trouble getting rid of it. So send it back. Send it back. Send it back.

I think when you look at the savings for school lunch, $2,000, two kids under the age of four, another $2,000 - $500 back for families, now combined we're starting to have a real effect on affordability in the State of New York and here on Long Island. That's how you get it done. That's how you do it.

So, we owe this to our kids. We owe it to them. We brought them into the world, we're responsible for them. But ultimately, it's not our job to raise kids, it's to raise adults. High functioning adults who had a great education, they're getting it in this building, I know that. But also kids that know they don't have to worry about food, breakfast or lunch. And parents with a little bit less stress in their lives.

If we can deliver that for New Yorkers, we'll take this state to a place that people are once again so proud of. That they have leaders who listen, who understand, who feel innately their stresses and their anxieties because we've lived them before.

And I thank all of you for being part of this journey in the Westbury School District for what you've done in setting the model for other school districts across the state and being there. Thank you very much, everybody. Let's do it for our kids.

The individual I want to introduce next has become a real leader, a champion on behalf of the teachers who teach our children across the state, but there is no difference between someone who fights for teachers and fights for kids. Melinda Person has shown that. The issues she has fought for the relationship we develop at the state level, one of great partnership understanding.

We're all marching forward together to lift up the families of our state. I'm grateful for her every single day. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce the head of the New York State Teachers Association statewide organization, NYSUT, Melinda Person.

Contact the Governor's Press Office