Mike Pearson tells us about a new pilot program created by the National Dairy Council.

The National Dairy Council is funded through the dairy checkoff for research and business development.

The National Dairy Council has partnered with Chartwells K12 Schools to serve hot chocolate for breakfast and lunch.

They are already started offering dairy based smoothies available at all Chartwells programs and have seen great success.

The hot chocolate programs have already had 14 percent growth overall and 11 percent increase in the breakfast programs.

The goal is to provide healthy options to students and give them what they need to succeed which is a

fun healthy beverage to help power kids through the day.

The National Dairy Council is pointing out that flavored milk offers 13 essential vitamins, the same as white milk.

The goal of the partnership is to bring new ideas to dairy industry and bring healthy foods to those that need them.

All data will be collected through the school year and see what the results are at the end of the school year.

Farm Progress America is a daily look at key issues in agriculture. It is produced and presented by Mike Pearson, farm broadcaster and host of This Week in Agribusiness.