On Sept. 10, Pomona dining services closed Milk & Honey, a unionized student-run boba shop, citing decline in revenue including boycotts of Starbucks at Cafe 47. The dining services also pitted the student workers against efforts of unionization by full-time workers at Pomona. Since the announcement of the closure, student workers have put together a petition that has amassed over 750 signatures within 48 hours.

The closure and firing of 13 student workers came two days after the college entered re-negotiations of worker contracts with the union. Milk & Honey is a student-run unionized boba shop that opens on Tuesday and Thursday nights at the Cafe 47 location on Pomona College’s campus. The space was an active hub for student activities, with a high volume of student customers enjoying the beverages on a daily basis.

Pomona’s closure of Milk & Honey has effectively fired 13 student workers, including student managers Aami Sejpal PO ‘28, Dora Wang PO ‘27, Ellie Lian PO ‘27 and Abena Ofosuhene PO ‘28. The four Milk & Honey managers sat down with Undercurrents to break down the timeline of the abrupt closure, how it fits in the context of wider repression on campus, and how to support their efforts to reopen.

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW:

Milk & Honey student managers are asking students and 7C community members to continue their support:

1. Follow the Milk & Honey Instagram page for updates directly from student workers
2. Message the Milk & Honey Instagram account with your memories and photos of it
3. Continue signing the petition and share with non-Pomona college students and community members
4. Do not frame this as a completed reversal of the closure
5. Support larger unionization efforts on campus for full-time workers 

“Milk & Honey is a part of larger things happening on campus”
As unionized student workers, Milk & Honey student managers see their fight as a larger issue of repression and labor justice on campus. 

“Milk & Honey is a part of larger things happening on campus,” said Lian. “Support full-time workers and union efforts as much as you have capacity for when there are any picket lines and delegations.”

Student managers say that even prior to the abrupt closure, dining hall management and overall Pomona administration’s actions reflect how little student and community input is taken into major decisions. 

“You can see how this termination and closure is broadly how the school acts,” said Ofosuhene. “If they get away with this, then they’re going to try and do it in other forms as well.”

Student workers at Cafe 47, the Coop, and Milk & Honey first unanimously voted to join the existing union under UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents hospitality workers across Southern California and Phoenix. The 2025 unionization effort allowed student workers to join the same union as full-time Pomona dining hall workers in Spring 2025. 

UNITE HERE Local 11 also sent an email to Martinez demanding the management to “cease all changes” to operations, negotiate changes with the union and requested evidence for reasons for closure. The Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) also sent out a similar email condemning the closure and supporting immediate re-opening on Sept. 14. 

Scripps College administration has similarly practiced abrupt shutdowns of student workers at the Motley Coffeehouse, a student-run cafe that has historically served as a political organizing space for students of color. In Oct. 2024, Scripps shut down the Motley for over 2 months due to the coffeehouse’s refusal to take down a Palestinian flag on its cafe walls and has repeatedly stalled negotiations for decor policy. 

An Email Calling for “Extraordinary Meeting” to Shut Down Milk & Honey

Student managers first received an email from Dining Manager Norma Castillo at 10:41 a.m. on Sept. 10 to meet at 11 a.m. Three Milk & Honey managers attended the meeting, where Dining Services General Manager Jose Martinez, Campus Executive Chef Travis Ellis, Dining Manager Marilyn Mora, and Castillo said they could not continue funding Milk & Honey due to “decreasing revenue” at Cafe 47 and the Coop.

During the meeting, Martinez told student managers that there had been a 50% drop in sales at Cafe 47 due to the boycott against Starbucks. Students, workers, and many members of the general public internationally have been boycotting Starbucks because of its complicity in the genocide of Palestinians, Starbucks’ ties to the prison-industrial complex, and its exploitative labor and anti-unionization practices. 

Student managers explained why citing the boycott pitted Milk & Honey against student organizing efforts on campus and did not make sense as a business strategy. For instance, Jose Martinez from Pomona dining services explicitly mentioned in the extraordinary meeting that “Milk and Honey makes more money in three hours than Cafe 47 does in 12 hours.”

“Our consensus is that it’s being used as an excuse considering how much money they already lose on an annual basis,” Wang said, referring to Pomona dining’s historical deficit. “We believe it is just an excuse to pit us against our own fellow students.”

“When I first heard it, I was confused because students who do not go to Cafe 47 [in the daytime] because of Starbucks will come to Milk & Honey,” said Lian, who felt like the boba shop made an active effort to increase revenue. “It’s confusing as a business practice to close us, because then a lot of these students may never come to Cafe 47.”

Robert Robinson, assistant vice president of facilities and campus services, responded in an email to The Student Life (TSL) and ASPC, but not Milk & Honey managers, that the college decided to reverse the closure. Later on Sept. 16, Martinez emailed student managers about the future of Milk & Honey. 

However, student managers say that Martinez’s email was not a confirmation of reopening. 
“They only mentioned that they would reopen for this academic year and didn’t talk about the longevity of it,” said Ofosuhene. 

Martinez’s most recent email to student managers did not include any opening date, nor assurance of long-term operations for Milk & Honey. 

“Until we get assurance that we get to keep our full operating hours, our full staff, our menu, and that this won’t be an issue when Abena and I are seniors, this is just further conversation and negotiation,” said Sejpal. “We’re not back to normal, that’s not what’s happening.” 

The managers also mentioned that opening Milk & Honey every semester takes enormous time and work from student workers, which the administration’s abrupt closure and unclear communication have further disrupted. Even if the decision is reversed, student workers are left to navigate the reopening without a confirmed date or assurance of long-term operations.