NORWICH – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congressman Richard Hanna were scheduled to announce their joint support today for changing federal school lunch guidelines to make Greek yogurt more affordable for schools.

Specifically, they will urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide more detailed nutritional values specific for Greek yogurt under the MyPlate nutrition guides and to allow schools to count high-protein Greek yogurt as an affordable protein option. This would make Greek yogurt more affordable for schools, as it would qualify it as a two-meat substitute, rather than one. Currently, the school lunch guidelines don’t differentiate Greek yogurt – which has twice the amount of protein – from regular yogurt.

Senator Gillibrand, a Democrat, is the first New York Senator on the agriculture committee in nearly 40 years. She and Rep. Hanna, who is a Republican, were scheduled to make the announcement at a press conference this afternoon at Chobani’s headquarters in Norwich.