For weeks, the Smith Campus Center was missing one of its sweetest fixtures. Starting at 7:15 p.m. on Oct. 6, Milk & Honey — which operates out of Café 47 — was a vibrant hub of activity. Students eagerly lined up, their chatter echoing through the courtyard as they queued for long overdue late-night boba drinks.
The student-run boba shop reopened on Oct. 6 after its initially planned closure. Pomona Dining Services announced it would shut down Milk & Honey on Sept. 10, sparking student mobilization over Dining Services’ decision-making and labor practices. Five days later, Robert Robinson, assistant vice president of facilities and campus services, stated in separate emails to TSL and the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) that Pomona had decided to “reverse the planned closure.”
In a Sept. 16 email, Dining Services told Milk & Honey managers it would begin discussions to reopen the shop and later solidified reopening plans in a meeting with managers on Sept. 25.
The boba shop’s return marks a partial victory for student workers and allies who fought to keep it open. However, Milk & Honey workers say the fight for its future — and broader workers’ rights on campus — is far from over.
“It’s important to emphasize how incredible it is that we as Milk & Honey baristas and the student body managed to bring back Milk & Honey and have such a successful opening,” Milk & Honey co-manager Dora Wang PO ’27 said, “but at the same time, emphasize how this is a milestone rather than an end goal.”
That end goal includes several long-term demands that Milk & Honey managers are pressing for in ongoing negotiations between Pomona College and UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents Milk & Honey alongside other student and full-time dining workers. Wang said that long-term success must also include Pomona meeting the demands of the full-time dining workers.
“I don’t think our rights and stability as student workers will ever be achieved if not done at the same time as the [dining] workers,” she said.
Besides the promise of long-term financial stability, which Wang said Dining Services still has not guaranteed, Milk & Honey’s demands include instituting recall and raising pay for baristas. The first negotiating meeting that Milk & Honey workers took part in occurred on Sept. 24.
Chloe Mossey PO ’29, a Milk & Honey barista who worked the reopening and works as an Arts & Culture columnist at TSL, also expressed lingering uncertainty about what will happen next as students advocate for lasting funding and the stability of the student-run structure.
“There’s another dimension of people feeling half like the fight is over and half like we’re not entirely sure,” she said. “We’re still negotiating for the longevity of Milk & Honey as far as going beyond this year to keep it going, and then negotiating for larger workers’ rights issues within the union.”
Mossey pointed to what multiple workers described to TSL as a persistent feeling of institutional control over the student-run space.
“We’ve noticed a sense of Dining Services’ control over us that I think is a little bit disheartening,” Mossey said. “I think especially as a student-run organization, seeing that autonomy is kind of limited [causes] a little bit of background anxiety.”
Wang similarly noted that while the dynamics of Milk & Honey’s relationship with Dining Services has certainly changed, it has remained an “adequate relationship of cooperation.”
“We can’t say that nothing has changed, but what we can ensure is that our relationships to our customers haven’t changed,” Wang said. “They and our baristas will always be our first priority no matter what, and I believe we will be able to navigate the uncertainty together.”
During the reopening, Milk & Honey sold 150 drinks in two-and-a-half hours, with students staying until the shop closed at 10 p.m. Mossey described the night as both reassuring and invigorating.
“It was a relief that we were able to have the space back, that we were able to keep up with the kind of experience, and to see an increased level of enthusiasm,” she said.
“It was a relief that we were able to have the space back, that we were able to keep up with the kind of experience, and to see an increased level of enthusiasm,” she said.
Both new and longtime patrons were excited about the reopening, chatting together under string lights inside while waiting for their drinks.
One first-time customer, Naufal Permana PO ’30, said he was looking forward to visiting the space since before enrolling at Pomona.
“I’ve been following [Milk & Honey’s] Instagram account since before I came [to Pomona] and I was really excited to try a student-owned boba shop,” Permana said. “When I heard that it was possibly being shut down, I was really disappointed.”
Permana also expressed gratitude for student organizing on campus.
“I’m really glad that we, as students — as a student body — were able to keep it open. It’s nice knowing that our voices are being heard,” Permana added.
Maureen Canedo SC ’30 had also heard about the shutdown and expressed relief over the success of student advocacy efforts.
“I heard that it was shut down because it was going against the Starbucks business, so they fired the workers. And then people pushed to reopen it, and I’m really happy that it’s open,” Canedo said, referencing Dining Services’ claim that they had shut down Milk & Honey because last year’s boycott of Café 47 had caused a decrease in sales.
Another student at the reopening, Semi Osunkeye PO ’28, said she found the decision to close the space to be short-sighted.
“This is a place for people to gather and feel safe,” Osunkeye said. “It was clearly a bad choice to [shut it down]. What’s the point [when] you’re gonna reinstate it?”
Osunkeye and other students described Milk & Honey as a critical community space. Faisa Yusuf PO ’27, who attended the reopening, said she particularly appreciated its uniquely student-run nature.
“I think it’s really important to have student-led businesses and be able to interact with student workers,” Yusuf said. “[And] I really like the drinks they provide.”
More than a boba shop, Milk & Honey has also been a space to make unexpected connections. Wang said one of her favorite parts of her three years at Milk & Honey has been connecting with returning customers and meeting new faces — which were abundant on Tuesday.
“It has been a difficult time, but also an opportunity to really genuinely connect with students and to expand our space to more members of the community,” Wang said.
Milk & Honey is open once again, welcoming the growing body of students who rallied behind it. But securing the boba shop’s future means more than keeping the door open — it means preserving a space for students to create community, one sip at a time.
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