"muun chi has been a godsend. You cannot find food that is made without salt or sugar except here. It's changed my life completely and will change yours! muun chi's food is transformational!"
Sandra H
mission
We create fresh, living foods with organic, unprocessed ingredients to help people enjoy optimal health. Through food, education, and community-building, we work for a better future for people and planet.
Food is medicine for the body. When we consciously choose clean, organic foods that provide functional benefits, we support the body's natural drive to maintain its health. We strengthen its chi - vital life force energy. All of muun chi's products are made with real, not processed, foods. Each serves a functional purpose.
Personal health and health of the planet are interdependent. Nature supplies the wonderful plants that nourish our bodies. In order to minimize our impact on the beloved Earth, we upcycle as much as possible, converting by-products from one production process into ingredients for other creations. We also avoid waste by packaging exclusively in glass jars and bottles that our awesome customers return for sanitizing and reuse. We strive to have a light footprint on what makes all life possible.
vision
We envision a future where there is widespread appreciation of the planet as the foundation of our health. In that future, our soils are teeming with living microorganisms that pass into our bodies and support our health. They are free of the chemicals and toxins and artificial substances that are root causes of inflammation and other health challenges, including chronic disease. We envision a future where all of us respect Nature’s generosity and participate actively to protect and enhance the resources that sustain us.
promise
100% organic and raw
We only use organic ingredients. Our products are raw to maximize nutritional value and function.
Plant-based
No animal products. No eggs. No dairy.
Real
All of our ingredients are the real foods that nature produces. We don't like preservatives, anything artificial or processed.
Functional
We focus on foods that deliver specific functional health benefits. We believe real food is medicine for the body.
No refined cane sugars, no grains, no soy, no GMOs
These can cause inflammation in the body and lead to chronic disease, including chronic pain. We avoid using them passionately.
Kind to the planet
We love our Earth and strive to have the lightest impact on it. We close the food loop with upcycling wherever possible, and we take advantage of packaging that maximizes opportunities for reusing, composting, and recycling. We'll never use plastic, we promise.
muun chi is made with love and gratitude.
my story
muun chi was born from a passion for mindful eating and a love of our planet. When I eliminated refined sugar from my diet to relieve a painful sciatic condition, I could not find commercially packaged snacks that were free of refined sugar. So I set out to create my own. Along the way, I discovered that the pulp - the by-product of juicing and nut milking - is a great source of fiber. Unfortunately, the pulp is often treated as waste. I began a collaboration with a wonderful organic juicer, drying its pulp and peels and using them as ingredients in our products.
I make muun chi because I know people want snacks made from real clean food - snacks that have no fillers, no junk, no GMOs, and nothing processed.
We begin with the gut, the foundation of health. Our muun chi probiotics - plant-based kefir and kvass - populate the gut with billions of microorganisms that help balance the microbiome and eliminate sugar cravings. Our muun chi prebiotic snacks feed the healthy gut bacteria.
Experimentation will always be part of the muun chi story, as we challenge ourselves to develop real foods that are delicious, good for you, and kind to our Earth.
Made with love and gratitude, always.
manette, aka mama muun
team
Manette, "mama muun"
FOUNDER AND CREATOR
Manette is the founder of muun chi and its creative force. Nothing makes her happier than spending time in the kitchen crafting new foods that are delicious and functional and made with upcycled ingredients. Okay, maybe that's second to time spent with her grandchildren.
Manette has a BA from Williams College and a PhD in Linguistics from Brown University. She is certified by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition as a Health and Wellness Coach. She draws on an understanding of Eastern and Western medicine to design organic, raw foods from real food, that nurture mind, body and soul.
Bill McCalpin
CEO
Bill is the left-brain complement to Manette. He runs hard to keep up with her creativity while tending to the infrastructure that enables muun chi to pursue its mission and support a growing community of passionate mindful eaters.
Bill has a BA from Williams College and a JD from Boston College Law School. Bill's career has focused on advancing solutions to pressing social and environmental challenges, initially with philanthropic interventions and more recently as an impact investor. He has executive management experience at private sector firms and endowed, grantmaking philanthropies. At muun chi, he's excited about the company's potential to contribute to fundamental change in the food system.
community
muun chi is pleased to be a member of the North Redondo Beach Business Association, an all-volunteer organization that nurtures economic growth, community involvement, and sustainability in the neighborhood we are privileged to call home. We appreciate the support that NRBBA gives to entrepreneurs and small businesses and are enthusiastic participants in its annual Dine Around Artesia event.
muun chi is also a member of the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce that strengthens the wider Redondo Beach economy by providing a range of services that help local businesses grow and serve the community.
Finally, muun chi is proud to be certified as a member of the Blue Zones Project of the Beach Cities Health District. The aim of the project is to promote across the South Bay the kinds of lifestyle practices that characterize regions of the world where there is an unusually high concentration of people living to age 100 and beyond (Blue Zones). The organic, plant-based foods that muun chi creates are closely aligned with the locally-oriented, whole foods diet that prevails in Blue Zones. We love knowing that we are helping members of the South Bay community live longer, healthier, happier lives.
