Champs elect to be heard (5)
I believe the answer is:
chews
'champs' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to consumption as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'elect to be heard' is the wordplay.
'elect' becomes 'choose' (I've seen this before).
'to be heard' shows a homophone (sound like).
'choose' is a homophone of 'CHEWS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for chews that I've seen before include "toffees" , "Masticates" , "bites" , "Does something with tooth" .)