George H. W. Bush mentioned his distaste for broccoli a number of times. The first mention of broccoli during Bush’s presidency was in March 1990, when he made a joke that the workers in the Office of Personnel Management would get merit pay ‘in broccoli’. Shortly after, a journalist from U.S. News and World Report broke the story that Bush banned the vegetable from Air Force One. In response, the broccoli-growers of America pledged to send a number of trucks of the vegetable to the White House.
George S. Dunlop, President of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, gave First Lady Barbara Bush a bouquet of the vegetable and an additional 10 tons in trucks. A few days afterwards, Bush hosted a state dinner to honour Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the Prime Minister of Poland, and journalists noted there was no broccoli on the menu, as most of the 10 tons of broccoli given to the President’s family by the farmers had been donated to the Capital Area Food Bank.