Deepa’s Inspiration

Arriving in the United States in 1993 from Pune, India, Deepa Deshmukh had a degree in Food Science and Nutrition and a desire to serve and empower people to eat a nutritious diet and maintain good health. Deepa’s first glimpse into the field of nutrition came while volunteering at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. In her position teaching nutrition to the most vulnerable population – families living in shelters with chronic health conditions, Deepa recognized that these people lacked both nutrition understanding and access to nutritious food. Deepa began a quest to help people, especially those with diabetes and other autoimmune health challenges to prepare and enjoy affordable and nutritionally-sound meals.

In the US, Deepa completed graduate school receiving degrees/certifications MPH, RDN, BC-ADM, CDE, formed a private practice and also began working in a publichealth clinic. Again, patients lacked nutrition education, basic culinary skills and were completely unaware of the relationship between food and its profound impact on their bodies. Seeking solutions, Deepa assisted in writing grants and eventually received funding to build a wellness kitchen located at the public health clinic in an underserved, low-income community where she then developed and delivered chronic disease care curriculum using the principles of culinary medicine.

Says Deepa, “I developed a variety of plant-based recipes and meal plans usinglegumes, vegetables and spices commonly found in the dishes I grew up with.As I followed my patients’ progress, I noticed a reversal of chronic conditions,as well as an association between legume consumption and improved gut-health. However, due to the lack of culinary knowledge, adherence torecommended diet was low and people were missing on the vital source ofnutrients found in legumes.”

Research for minimally-processed, ready-to-eat, flavorful legume-basedproducts revealed a lack of product availability and the need for a new productmeeting this criteria. This inspired Deepa to create products that could helppeople make mindful choices on their journey toward healthy eating. Workingrelentlessly to create a Ready-To-Eat and Quick-Cooking flavorful yetnourishing legume-based product line has been the goal and challenge thatDeepa strived to achieve. Encouraged by family, friends, patients, mentors andadvisors Deepa persevered to realize her goal of creating a nourishing legume-based product that is suitable for k-12 school lunch menus, university, hospital,corporate cafeterias and for the retail market. Great care, research, and anabundance of positive energy have gone into making these snacks and powermeals. It is both a pleasure and a privilege to share them with you.

Finally as a team we recognize that change is not possible without education.Unfortunately, nutrition education is not trickling down to the most vulnerable population in our society. We therefore have committed to donate a part of our profits towards nutrition- and wellness-related programs at schools, halfway houses, and those that serve the vulnerable population.