July 18, 2025
Chris Goode spoke to AFROTECH on how he turned his grandmother’s legacy right into a well being revolution and enterprise.
Chris Goode, founding father of Ruby Jean’s Juicery, has remodeled private tragedy into objective. The Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, native launched the well being and wellness model in honor of his late grandmother, Ruby Jean, who helped elevate him and his siblings however handed away from problems associated to power sickness. Her story fuels his mission to convey more healthy meals choices to underserved communities.
Ruby Jean’s affect looms giant in Goode’s journey. “She didn’t converse a lot,” he mentioned in an interview with AFROTECH, “however she confirmed her affection by means of cooking soul meals. It was that very same soul meals that ended up resulting in her demise, as a result of she had power diseases which might be very commonplace within the Black group. And he or she ultimately ended up on life assist.”
Identified with sort 2 diabetes and different power situations, Ruby Jean died after being taken off life assist. Goode was solely 14.
“The agony in myself and my mother and my siblings and my aunts—it’s one thing that I’d always remember, and I nonetheless don’t neglect it to at the present time,” Goode recalled. “And so I made a silent vow going from funeral to funeral that I used to be gonna inform individuals who my grandmother was sooner or later.”
That vow grew to become motion after a transformative expertise whereas working as a disaster insurance coverage adjuster. On a visit to Los Angeles, he joined buddies in watching the documentary “Fats, Sick and Practically Lifeless,” which explores the well being advantages of juice cleaning.
Goode accomplished his personal seven-day cleanse and acknowledged that the expertise impressed him.
“I had this readability, this self-awareness that I had by no means skilled. I had been a collegiate athlete, however I by no means skilled this stage of psychological and emotional and religious consciousness. And I mentioned, ‘I’ve been doing life flawed.’”
From then on, Goode deliberate journeys round visiting juice bars, carried a conveyable juicer, and began monitoring menus and recipes. Finally, he realized that consuming juice wasn’t sufficient—he needed to convey it to others.
Regardless of incomes over six figures, Goode left his job, tapped into his 401(ok), took on debt, and opened Ruby Jean’s Juicery in Kansas Metropolis.
Since its launch in 2015, the enterprise has skilled important progress. Ruby Jean’s merchandise at the moment are bought at greater than 100 Entire Meals Market shops throughout main cities, together with Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston, and Chicago, and served at venues reminiscent of CPKC Stadium and Loews Motels.
Reflecting on the corporate’s mission, Goode defined, “I can at all times level to ways in which we’re rising… taking this message of a more healthy existence, a message that I want my grandma had, and ensuring that it’s delivered to individuals which might be at the moment identical to my grandmother was again then.”
In accordance to the Ruby Jean Juicery web site, Ruby Jean’s juices are constituted of contemporary fruit and veggies and ready cold-pressed with out the addition of water, sugars, or preservatives.
Not solely is the product stocked in shops throughout the US, but it surely’s additionally obtainable on the market on-line.
Ruby Jean’s Juicery presents cleaning packages on their web site, aiming to make well being accessible to these simply getting began.
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