Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appearance with U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody in Tampa ended abruptly Wednesday after a reporter questioned Kennedy about his ties to a company that produces a kratom-based beverage.
Kennedy and Moody were visiting a Tampa elementary school to promote the federal government’s Harvest to Hallways initiative, which is intended to encourage schools to purchase locally produced meat and produce for student meals.
The initiative includes $25 million in Farm to School grants but does not provide an overall increase in school food budgets.
The funding comes after the Trump administration eliminated the Local Food for Schools program, which had provided roughly $660 million to support purchases of locally produced food. Critics of the new initiative have argued that the $25 million in grants represents only a fraction of the previous program’s funding.
“The programs that were canceled were programs that were not functioning,” Kennedy said Wednesday.
The Iowa Cattlemen’s Association told KWQC that the new initiative does not come close to replacing the funding eliminated with the previous program. The Florida Cattlemen’s Association was not immediately available for comment.
The earlier cuts also raised concerns among agricultural groups in Florida. Ernesto Ruiz of the Farmworkers Association of Florida told WFLA last year that the loss of funding could mean less work and lower wages for farmworkers in the state.
Kennedy was also questioned Wednesday about changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. At least 1.5 million children have reportedly lost access to SNAP benefits under changes implemented by the Trump administration.
Kennedy told WMNF that he was not concerned the changes would negatively affect children’s nutrition.
“The only people kicked off of SNAP were people who were not eligible for it,” Kennedy said. “They were not eligible because their income is too high or because they were illegal aliens.”
The event shifted to another controversy when a reporter for the British news outlet Sky News attempted to question Kennedy about his relationship with Botanic Tonics, the company behind the kratom beverage Feel Free.
The Department of Justice dropped a product-safety lawsuit involving the company earlier this year. In the weeks that followed, Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again PAC received a $1 million contribution from the company.
A Democratic member of the Senate Finance Committee has since opened an investigation into Kennedy over the connection.
When the Sky News reporter began questioning Kennedy about the contribution Wednesday, Moody intervened and brought the media availability to a close.
“Thank you very much for joining us today to talk about our kids and their healthy futures,” Moody said as the reporter attempted to continue the question.
The press availability ended after less than 12 minutes.
