A little bit about Milk & Honey. 

Milk and Honey was started by a Pomona College student in 2016 as a bubble tea initiative, to satisfy the community need for a late-night snack or a study break. It has since then grown into a community space for students, faculty and staff to converse, study, and attend events. Open every Tuesday and Thursday night in Café 47, it appeals to the need for a late-night drink and serves more than 100 students per night. As a fixture of campus life, Milk and Honey has collaborated with a number of student groups such as Pomona Student Union (PSU), Asian American Mentorship Program (AAMP), and the Claremont Colleges’ League of Women’s Voters (LWV) to create opportunities for students to engage in meaningful discussion. Furthermore, Milk and Honey has worked with the Career Development Office (CDO) and the biology department to provide helpful resources to the student body while bridging the student-faculty gap. It has been featured on various The Student Life (TSL) articles as a well-loved space that has served the 5Cs consistently for every semester, with the exception of the pandemic. 

In recent years, Milk and Honey has been funded by Pomona College Dining Services, yet it remains one of the few entirely student-run spaces on campus. It provides thirteen to sixteen students with on-campus jobs every semester, which has become especially important given increasing transportation costs for off-campus jobs as well as employment restrictions for international students. More than a group of baristas, the Milk and Honey crew is a tight-knit and dedicated team that works together to constantly innovate and provide boba drinks in times of need. 

Recently, Milk and Honey Managers were informed by Dining Services that the program will be discontinued due to budget constraints. Despite Milk and Honey’s strong customer base and consistent revenue, Dining Services cited declining participation and sales at other dining locations, including the impact of the Cafe 47 Starbucks boycott, as factors in this decision. The managers were given only nineteen minutes’ notice of the meeting and little opportunity for real negotiation. Milk and Honey is a student-run, unionized organization that provides meaningful employment and has become an important part of Pomona’s campus community. Hence, we reject the framing of resource allocation, where student workers are in competition with full-time union employees. We stand in solidarity with both groups.

We are asking the 5C community to stand with us in protecting student employment and preserving Milk and Honey. Sign this petition to demand that Dining Services reconsider its decision and work with student baristas to keep Milk & Honey open.