New York state’s health commissioner on Thursday praised Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to provide free meals to students across the state as beneficial to both children’s health and families’ wallets.

“We all need food, and kids need food. And you know, this means everybody gets food. So one, you're not going to see this stink anymore about who's getting the free breakfast or the free lunch—everybody gets it now, and it saves everybody money, $165 a month,” Commissioner James McDonald said during an interview on “Mornings On 1.”

Hochul announced the proposal on Jan. 14 in her 2025 State of the State to provide more than 2.7 million public school students with free breakfast and lunch at school. The state is budgeting $340 million for the free meals.

“It's one of those things where no one benefits when kids are hungry. We all benefit when kids are fed. Kids learn better… kids are happier, and it's just the right thing to do,” McDonald said of the plan.

McDonald said the governor may have been inspired by New York City, which already offers free breakfast, lunch and after school meals to public school students throughout the five boroughs.

“That’s the whole point: It's how do we take good ideas and make them work for everybody,” he said.

McDonald also said that with the free meals, he would like to see students eating “without a cellphone,” noting that he is in favor of the governor’s proposal to ban cellphones in public schools throughout the state. Hochul has proposed $13.5 million to help schools implement the ban.

“We have this nameless algorithm influencing our kids. Big tech is raising our kids. This isn't OK, and I think what you're gonna see is less distracted kids. You're going to see happier kids. You're going to see kids learning to interact more with each other,” he said of the ban.

“These phones, they're tools, but what they've become is barriers and, at times, weapons … This is one way to make our school as safe as possible,” he said.