Eleven Years of Ruby Jean's: Her Legacy, Our Promise
Eleven years. This July 25th, Ruby Jean's Juicery turns eleven, and we can't let the day pass without telling you why we're here — because the whole thing started with a woman most of you never met.
The woman behind the name
Ruby Jean Bates was our founder Chris Goode's grandmother. She came to Kansas City in the late 1950s, and she cooked the way love was expressed in her generation: fried, buttered, rich, and generous. Her table was the center of the family. But the soul-food diet that brought everyone together also took a quiet toll, and in 1999 she passed from complications of Type 2 diabetes, kidney disease, and high blood pressure. She was 61. Chris was 14.
That loss planted a seed. Years later, after his own health wake-up call and his first juice cleanse, Chris felt better than he ever had — and he thought of his grandmother. What if she'd had access to this? What if fresh, healthy food had been as available, as celebrated, and as woven into the culture as the food that made her sick? In 2015, with more conviction than capital, he opened the first Ruby Jean's in her honor. Her legacy fuels our passion for healthy living. It always has.
What eleven years has built
From one storefront on a mission, Ruby Jean's has grown into a Kansas City institution and beyond. Our flagship kitchen and juicery sits at 3000 Troost — once a line drawn through our city, now a place where we pour life back in. Our cold-pressed juices are on shelves in more than 100 Whole Foods locations across the country. We've planted community gardens that give away fresh produce for sweat equity, partnered with the Kansas City Current at CPKC Stadium, and fed, employed, and inspired more neighbors than we could have dreamed in 2015.
The promise for the next eleven
But we measure success differently than most businesses. Our real bottom line is the life-expectancy gap between Kansas City zip codes — as wide as 18 years — and every bottle, bowl, garden, and shot is aimed at closing it. Eleven years in, that work is far from finished.
So here's our promise for the years ahead: we will keep making the healthiest food we can as joyful and accessible as the food it competes with. We will keep showing up in the neighborhoods that need fresh food the most. And we will keep saying her name — Ruby Jean — until the freedom she didn't get is something every family in this city can taste.
To everyone who has walked through our doors, ordered a juice, taken the cleanse, or simply believed in the mission: thank you. You are the reason we've made it eleven years. Come celebrate with us this month — the next chapter is just getting started.
Happy anniversary, Kansas City. Here's to your health, and your freedom.
Call to action: Celebrate 11 years with us at 3000 Troost this July — and taste the mission for yourself.
Sources
1. Flatland KC — Racism at the Root of Kansas City Health Disparities
