SCHUMER ANNOUNCES NEW YORK’S UPSTATE NIAGARA HAS WON BID TO PROVIDE GREEK YOGURT TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS ACROSS THE COUNTRY AS PART OF PILOT PROGRAM – COMPANY WILL PROVIDE YOGURT TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN 3 STATES THROUGH DECEMBER
WNY’s Upstate Niagara Will Provide 142,700 Pounds of Greek Yogurt
To Schools in Three States – NY, AZ, TN
Schumer: Bringing Greek Yogurt To Schools Across the U.S. Is Major Win
For New York
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded New York’s Upstate Niagara Cooperative – based in Buffalo – a contract to provide its Greek yogurt to public schools across three states through the USDA’s School Lunch Program Pilot. These states are New York, Arizona and Tennessee. Upstate Niagara will be providing 142,700 pounds of Greek yogurt to schools in these states through December. The entire pilot program will run through the end of the school year in June 2015, and USDA will soon consider bids for the next round.
“I am proud to announce that New York-made Greek yogurt will again be making its way to school lunchrooms across the country,” said Senator Schumer. “This is a major win for Western New York, as well as the entire New York dairy industry. I commend USDA for selecting Upstate Niagara, one of the premier dairy cooperatives in the country, and I look forward to hearing rave reviews from students around the country.”
Schumer has long fought to make New York the Greek yogurt capital of the United States, pushing for federal investments in production facilities and federal assistance to dairy farmers to increase milk production to meet the increased demand from Greek yogurt.
In January of 2013, Schumer announced that he successfully petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to increase the availability of New York-made Greek yogurt in school meal programs in New York State and potentially across the country by initiating a pilot program to increase the availability of Greek yogurt in schools across the country.
Following news that schools that participated in the initial 3-month USDA Greek yogurt pilot had consumed 200,000 pounds and $300,000-worth of Greek yogurt, USDA decided to expand the program to twelve states--New York, Arizona, Idaho, Tennessee, California, Iowa, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Vermont, Washington and Mississippi.
Upstate Niagara is a farmer-owned cooperative consisting of over 360 family-owned dairy farms throughout Western New York.