From http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawken

Remember when American universities started hurting from the recession? At Harvard, students were forced to go without hot breakfasts. Soup kitchens sprang up to help students through the whole thing (we heard).

When they learned of the travesty that had befallen Harvard, Princeton’s very own Tiger Magazine set out to remedy the situation by bringing hot oatmeal to the huddled crimson masses.

“Our humanitarian action was motivated by our deep-seated empathy for Harvard students,” head writer Jim Valcourt ‘12 told us in an email. “After all, they go to Harvard. Sure, our schools are rivals, but that’s no excuse for standing by idly while your fellow man is deprived of morning sustenance. Someone had to act.”

The mission’s mastermind Stephen Stolzenberg ‘13 carried out the Ivy League Marshall Plan with Valcourt, Myra Gupta ‘12, Rodrigo Menezes ‘13, Brian Edwards ‘11 and Steven Liss ‘10.

Ed Kelley ‘13 captured and edited their efforts and posted the video yesterday on Tiger Magazine’s website:

Of course, the attempt to nourish Harvard students’ stomachs and souls devolved into a heated rivalrous confrontation … or at least a couple of email exchanges between Harvard students attempting to plan such a confrontation.

Read our favorite emails after the jump.