LONG BEACH, CA — Service has surrounded Jovi Chen-Davis her entire life. Raised by family members who worked in law enforcement and other public service, the founder and CEO of Munchy Co. — a vibrant, vegan edibles brand — followed a similar path. Through an array of roles in education and community-oriented work with AmeriCorps and SAG-AFTRA, her journey to becoming a cannabis snack company founder and social equity entrepreneur has become much more people centric.
Following hefty R&D, Chen-Davis’ experimentation to merge the snack food and cannabis industries was a success, and in 2021, Munchy Co. was born. While sweet is the status quo in the edibles industry, the untapped sector of savory snacks was an opportunity, not an obstacle, for Chen-Davis.
“The reason why people do sweets is because there’s a charted path on how to do it; everyone sees what works,” she said. “In an industry that can be kind of volatile, I guess it could be easy to do what works. But I felt this was feasible if I had the right team behind me.”