♪♪ - I was eating a lot of regular oatmeal, like plain instant oatmeal.

I was in college eating it before class, but when I would eat the oatmeal, I would get hungry and like tired right after I ate it.

And I didn't really know why, 'cause like my mom used to say oatmeal is healthy.

Like, you know, you think oatmeal is really healthy.

So I was eating it and I just wasn't feeling that good until I did some research and realized that oatmeal doesn't have that much protein in it and you need a lot of protein in the morning and I was like how could I make oatmeal better and then I was just like wait what if I replace the oatmeal with the chickpea instead.

And so ChiChi Foods was born.

We now have five flavors we have apple cinnamon which is a classic our best-seller which is maple brown sugar inspired by the maple brown sugar packets I used to eat we have a dark chocolate a new one which is peanut butter chocolate chip which is so insane it tastes so good and then our most popular one is actually plain and it only has one ingredient which is chickpeas I know what you're thinking chickpeas yes the answer is chickpeas the response has been amazing I think we're a totally new product like there's literally no other chickpea oatmeal on the market anywhere which is kind of crazy so people are like very intrigued by it and I think the biggest problem we have is that since people have never heard of it, they're like, it's hard to get them to try it without tasting it first.

So we do me and my co founder Izzy, we do tons of demos and our goal is just get chi chi into the mouths of as many people as possible.

Because then when they try it, then they'll buy it.

But it's just hard to like educate without tasting it.

And it tastes actually very good.

It tastes like when people taste it, they're like, Oh, I can't believe it's chickpeas.

It almost has the texture of like steel cut oats in a way.

But Chiara and Izzy both St.

Louis transplants say living St.

Louis is the reason for ChiChi Foods.

Right now we're in the ArchGrants office in St.

Louis and ArchGrants is this amazing organization that basically helps local startups grow without like taking any equity away from their company.

And we just won this award out of like 20 startups this year.

This money really helps us grow and just like keep getting into more grocery stores, keeps keep selling online and keep innovating new flavors.

These two are grateful for the Lou.

It's ingenuity, education and the community that has supported ChiChi Foods from the very beginning.

Every step of the way, like St.

Louis as a city has, we started this at Wash U and they've given us grants to start the company.

And then like we've just kind of taken baby steps so that we can just keep growing slow and steady.

Climbing to the top to reach their goal.

So what's next for ChiChi Foods?

What's next for us is trying to become a national breakfast brand in every grocery store in America.

Changing the world one chickpea at a time.