choco vanilla ice cream
A Louisiana mother of six children and foster mother to other children has a mixed-race family whose children thought that Blue Bell Ice Cream should change the name of a popular chocolate and vanilla ice cream flavor, The Great Divide, to "Better Together."

As Fox News reports, "Traci Schmidley, her husband, and their brood of six children were sitting down for an ice cream party at their Louisiana home to celebrate the end of a hard week." Schmidley wrote, "We always buy Blue Bell, and this time we chose the flavor The Great Divide, which has chocolate on one half and vanilla on the other half."

Schmidley's older son, 10, joked that the Great Divide flavor reminded him of the Civil War. Schmidley recalled, "The line down the middle of the carton reminded him of the Mason Dixon line, and the name reminded him of a time in history when our nation appeared to be irrevocably divided. He looked at our table and saw a mixture of both black and white people, not divided on one side or another like in the ice cream but gathered around the table together."

Schmidley, who homeschools her children, noted that her son didn't term the name racist; he just "didn't think the name 'great divide' was the best name for something as wonderfully unifying as Blue Bell ice cream."

Schmidley stated, "We had a lot of great discussion about how despite the division at that time in our country's history, how our very table, located in the Deep South, was reflective of how far we have come as a people. I challenged the kids to come up with a different name that could capture the intent of Blue Bell ice cream but would reflect the remarkable progress our country has made."

Twenty minutes later, a title was born: "Better Together." Her sons wrote on Facebook, "I thought a new name could be 'Better Together,' because it will make everyone happy and also in our family, everyone, no matter our color, are all better together as well. If we work together, we're really powerful, and nothing can overcome it." The Facebook post was shared over 12,000 times, according to CBS News.

Blue Bell saw the response to the post, and sent the children a letter. Schmidley told Yahoo Lifestyle, "They replied online and sent the kids a letter and some gift certificates. They were incredibly encouraging and supportive. They loved the message and complimented the children."

Joe Robertson, director of public relations at Blue Bell Creameries, told Yahoo Lifestyle, "We were amazed when we read the letter, by their thoughtfulness and their compassion for all people, and we are humbled by their love of our ice cream. We are so impressed by them and commend Traci for providing the environment where an important conversation like this can take place."

But the company intends to stick with the name they had already created, stating, "We created Great Divide so that families didn't have to choose between two favorites but could enjoy both Homemade Vanilla and Dutch Chocolate in one container!"