Kathee Lavine, owner of Holy Cow Café, would like to clear something up: Holy Cow is not necessarily leaving the EMU.
While a committee, five EMU employees and one University student, unanimously decided that the Portland-based Laughing Planet Café will replace Holy Cow when the eatery’s 10-year lease expires June 30, Lavine is working on legally appealing the decision.
“Everyone keeps saying, ‘Sorry you’re leaving’ and we’re like, ‘We’re not going anywhere.’ Just because one person wants us out doesn’t mean they’re going to get their way,” she said. “We’re waiting for the University’s response but we’re fully confident that we will be staying.”
To that end, University senior Jessica Arena and her roommates, Zachariah Krochina and Colin Donoghe, all vegans, organized a “Save the Cow” protest in the EMU food court Tuesday afternoon.
Dressed like cows and waving signs (“Mooove towards sustainability”), the three roommates and a handful of others advocated Holy Cow, its local ties, complete lack of meat, and sustainable practices – including composting and bleach-free to-go containers.
“The one thing you can do today that would have the most impact on the world is to become a vegan or a vegetarian,” Krochina said. “That we have an establishment that wholeheartedly supports that, as Holy Cow does, is paramount in remedying so many social woes in the world.”
The protesters encouraged passersby to sign petitions and wear homemade “Save the Cow” patches in order to increase visibility.
“When you’re cruising around campus, you’re still making the statement that you support Holy Cow,” Arena said.
Laura Scourfield, a senior geography major whose favorite menu item at Holy Cow is the pad thai, couldn’t stay for the protest but had a patch pinned to her bag.
“I think they’re making a very good attempt at trying to maintain the local kind of alternative vibe that this University tends to strive for,” she said, of the protesters. “I like Laughing Planet, I support Laughing Planet, but nothing offers this kind of variety of food with so many options for people who are on restrictive diets or want to lead a healthy lifestyle.”
For University freshman Sara Quinn, a vegan, Holy Cow is just about the only dining option in the EMU.
“I live on campus and it’s hard to find food I can eat,” she said. “This is an incredible thing that we have and I think it’s entirely ridiculous that (the committee wants) to take it off so I’m trying to do everything I can to stop it.”
Quinn thinks Holy Cow’s potential departure is a glaring example of the administration not acting in the student body’s best interests. EMU Director Dusty Miller said that legally, he can’t comment.
During the protest, Jaime Corcoran, a University sophomore majoring in communication disorders and sciences, sat nearby and ate her lunch from A Bite of Mexico. Corcoran, who thinks Holy Cow is too expensive and prefers to eat at Subway and the Marketplace, doesn’t particularly care what happens with Holy Cow, though she said the protest was a good thing.
“I think the whole idea of organic food is great but Laughing Planet also has organic food,” she said. “I think it’s good that they’re standing up for something they believe in.”
Throughout the afternoon, the protesters took photos of people posing with their heads poking through a sign that showed a word bubble reading, “I support the Holy Cow staying in the EMU.” Eventually, the photos will all be compiled for a picture petition that will be sent to Miller, EMU Food Services Director John Costello, ASUO President Emily McLain and University President Dave Frohnmayer.
A political science major, Arena has read a lot about social change and political movements. She said this protest was a good way to get into the 1960s-style activism she thinks this generation should mimic.
“It seems good to practice civil disobedience so that when we’re actually in the real world, we feel a little more comfortable stepping out of our box,” she said.
[email protected]