Harvest Noon Café, a volunteer-based vegetarian café, is set to open early second semester on the second floor of the Graduate Student Union office. The brainchild of Clair Luke, Willie Costello, John Pipitone, Mehdi Ravandi, Ryan Franks, and Mai Nguyen, the café encourages the use of local organic ingredients in all their recipes.

“It’s an alternative healthy sustainable eatery which is lacking in a number of other places; also, it’s independently run, so students can provide more feedback on what they’re eating,” said one of the organizers.

Asked about the challenges of working on the project, particularly with no business experience, Ravandi said that “balancing a student life is very difficult because it requires a lot of commitment,” but they are “lucky” to have a group dedicated to making the café a reality.

—Samantha Preddie