B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Reaffirms Commitment to Providing Free Breakfast and Lunch to More Than 2.7 Million Students

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul visited Eagle Point Elementary School to recommit to her 2025 State of the State proposal 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. Today’s visit comes as the federal government continues its efforts to slash vital food assistance programs — including attempting to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, threatening cuts to the Community Eligibility Provision in the National School Lunch program and eliminating over $1 billion in federal funding to help bring local food to schools and food banks.

B-ROLL of the Governor in Eagle Point Elementary School’s cafeteria 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 has photos of the event here.

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

Once  a mom, always a mom. I don't want kids to trip.

Thank you for joining us here at Eagle Point Elementary School, a place that really relies on the federal government for subsidizing these lunches that we're seeing these children eat. And to think that Albany city, right now, needs $6 million from the federal government to give these children the nutrition they need for breakfast and lunch, and that is in jeopardy with the elimination of the Department of Education — we just learned officially about today. So, that's a $2 billion hit for New York State if they eliminate this program.

We're very concerned about it, and this absolutely flies in the face of what I'm trying to do here in the State of New York, which is to make life more affordable for people, which is why in my Budget, I propose to cover the complete cost of breakfast and lunch for families per child. It is going to be $1,600 back in their pockets — two kids, it's $3,200; you do the math.

So, I'm proud to be here today to support this, but I'm very concerned that the Department of Education Head, a pro-wrestling mogul, is now acting like a schoolyard bully and picking on the most vulnerable because we also get a lot of money from the Department of Education for Pell Grants — 400,000 students have a chance at a higher education because of that. Half a million kids with disabilities get money from the Department of Education, as well as the fact that 60 percent of children in the State of New York are lower income, again, funded by the Department of Education, which they're eliminating.

So, this is the fight we're taking on, and if they come in a room like this and talk about these kids now having to not have lunches, that is downright cruel. I say that not just as a Governor, but as a mother.