Battle of the cabbage cousins

If you follow us on Facebook, you might have seen our photo last spring of a blue sweatshirt that says KALE instead of YALE.

Turns out, not all Yalies are down with that. Three undergraduates launched a campaign this week to unseat kale as the reigning hip veggie. "We’re going to make broccoli the president of vegetables!” Drew Morrison ’14 declared at a Presidents' Day event.

Flanked by Monica DiLeo ’16 and Adam Goff ’15 in green "Brocclyn" t-shirts,  Morrison—whose yellow shirt read, "Eat Fad-Free"—explained how the trio were trying to, well, start a fad.

As a project for their Urbanization, Food Systems and Environment class, they persuaded an ad agency to donate pro-broccoli designs that had been drawn up at the request of the New York Times.  What the Times proposes, New Haven can dispose, the students figured. 

Or, as Morrison put it: "Elm City is going to become Broccoli City" when they've raised enough money for a billboard and bus ads. Downtown businesses, including Claire's Corner Copia and the Elm City Market, are pitching in with promotional events.

The campaign has three goals, the students explain on their Broccoli vs Kale website: to give broccoli "some much needed love"; to help "New Haveners to eat healthy"; and "to show that a community can get together to advertise something important."

Yeah, fine. But does it rhyme with Yale?

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The Yale Alumni Magazine is published by Yale Alumni Publications Inc., an alumni-based nonprofit that is not run by Yale University. Its content does not necessarily reflect the views of the university administration.