Chenango’s own Chobani, a worldwide producer of Greek-style yogurt, will be available in school cafeterias across four different states starting this fall.

It was announced Friday that Chobani has been awarded a contract in association with a USDA pilot program that would make Chobani yogurt available to students in schools in New York, Idaho, Tennessee and Arizona. The announcement comes only weeks after the USDA revised nutritional guidelines to allow Greek yogurt as a viable source of protein in the National School Lunch Program - a move that subsequently promotes nutritious eating habits for students and boosts the job market in rural communities like Chenango County.

State legislatures have pushed for the inclusion of Greek yogurt in school lunch programs for more than a year, citing benefits they say will keep New York State a leader in one of the country’s fastest growing industries. New York was chosen as part of the program because of its thriving Greek yogurt manufacturing sector and New York State schools’ heightened interest in the program.

The pilot program will test the cost effectiveness of offering Greek yogurt in the school lunch program, which feeds 31 million students nationwide. The USDA has recognized that Greek yogurt packs twice the protein as regular yogurt, less sodium and fewer carbohydrates.