B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces More Than 150 Million Free School Meals Served to Students Across New York State Since Start of School Year

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul highlighted that schools across New York State have served more than 150 million free meals since the start of the school year in September, following implementation of the Governor’s Universal School Meals law. Now that State law ensures all New York students have access to free breakfast and lunch, schools across the state are serving more than 2.5 million free meals per school day. 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. With approximately 2.7 million students in New York State, universal school meals can help families statewide save up to $450 million per month on grocery costs.

B-ROLL: B-roll of the Governor visiting kids during lunch 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:

How about that cafeteria, everybody. That is a rousing group of young people and it was exciting just to come out and say hi to the kids all dressed in their Buffalo Bills gear. But I wanted to make sure I came to Maple West Elementary because there's been a transformational change here, and that is that at one time before September, our new policy which says that every school child in the State of New York will have free lunches and free breakfast to ensure that they're well fed during the day, and there's not a stigma for the children who do need the subsidized meals.

This school alone had, of its 600 students, over 100 who were getting the subsidized meals and support. And so we wanted to say, you know what, we want every child to ensure that they have nutritious meals, breakfast and lunch, to get them through the school day. And since September, and I'm proud to announce this, since this started in September, New York State has provided over 150 million free meals. That's extraordinary. And that saves parents money, those who otherwise would be paying, but also that's 2.5 million meals every single day.

So, even here, participation in the breakfast program is up 12 percent, the lunch program is up 16 percent. Those were kids who otherwise were not eating, and that is how we're changing people's lives every single day — making sure our kids have a good, healthy start to the day, and also taking some of the burden of not just the expense, because the typical family has to spend $1,600 per year per child to cover either the groceries for making the breakfast and lunches or to cover the cost in school. It also gives you time back. This is time back for busy parents who don't have to worry about making breakfast or lunches for their kids.

So, I'm proud of this and we're looking forward to finding out for more schools what they're doing. But it's all about putting more money back in families’ pockets, and that's exactly what we're doing here at Maple West Elementary in Western New York.