Changing the Way the World Does Health

Chris Goode is the founder of the purpose-driven, Emmy award-winning Ruby Jean’s Juicery, based in Kansas City, MO. Chris is a passionate entrepreneur who started his company in 2015 to honor the premature death of his Grandmother Ruby Jean, who fought a short-lived battle with Type 2 diabetes. He adamantly believes had his grandmother had the knowledge of juicing and a healthy lifestyle that she’d still be alive today. Chris has made it his life’s work to educate underrepresented communities and integrate the juicing culture in his hometown of Kansas City, MO., which is why he strategically opened the flagship Ruby Jean’s location in a longstanding food desert at 30th and Troost, not far from where he grew up. This location’s real estate is owned by Chris’ family and is the first-ever health-focused business to ever exist on the East side of KC. This land wasn’t able to be owned by a black person many decades prior.

Chris has most recently founded Ruby Jean's Foundation to make tangible his long-standing desire to edify the ecosystem of his local community in Kansas City as well as many others one day. Chris intends to remove the barriers that exist between vulnerable populations and their healthiest existence. One principal project for Ruby Jean's Foundation is Ruby Jean's Garden, a garden project that is situated just 10 blocks North of Ruby Jean's home on the very street where Chris lived with his mother and siblings early on. This Garden will be meant to nourish those who nourish it and offer their sweat equity to strengthen the neighborhood's intrinsic value through ownership, accountability, and reciprocity.

Ruby Jean’s trademarked brand slogan is We Make Juice for a Reason, Chris defines that reason as being: Health is freedom and should be available to us all.

Chris’ love for service and community has found him on several important boards in Kansas City. As a former Commissioner of Parks & Recreation, he was able to impact many areas of Kansas City including renaming JC Nichols Parkway and fountain, helping drive home an honoring for Dr. King with MLK Blvd, creating a crosswalk between South Moreland Park and the famed Nelson Atkins museum, as well having the idea to create a bridge for MLK park which would give East side resident safer access and much much more. This idea would ultimately be funded more than 3 million dollars by Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver.

Chris has also volunteered his time for the Menorah Medical Center board where he sought to bridge the trust gap between healthcare and his community. In 2021, Chris turned a dream into reality, when he successfully launched a pilot partnership with Kansas City Public Schools to provide 10,000 bottles of fresh juice to 3 schools in a first-of-its-kind program nationally. Chris also stands as the first person to have gone from attending Operation Breakthrough as a child to now serving on their board of directors. Ultimately, Chris has taken the platform of Ruby Jean’s over its first eight years of business and leveraged it to consistently generate tangible change and health awareness throughout the Kansas City community and beyond.

In business, Chris has led Ruby Jean’s Juicery to currently have 4 locations, 2 smart refrigerators, 2 revolving residencies, and over 200 wholesale locations for their signature cold-pressed juice. The brand boasts partnerships with the Kansas City Royals, The Kansas City Current, the city of Kansas City, Whole Foods Market as a minority equity investor, and much more. Ruby Jean’s has been fueled by Chris’ passion for family, community, and building a healthier ecosystem in Kansas City and far beyond. Chris attributed much of Ruby Jean’s success to the growing strength of its team at all layers of the business. This background as a small business owner led Chris to be invited to be the Entrepreneur In Residence for St. Louis-based nonprofit "WEPOWER", in which Chris constructed a 10-week accelerator that spanned a range of practical business topics like marketing, but also broached the importance of mental health for budding entrepreneurs and even peered into the world of AI during one of the weekly workshops.

Chris is an innovative thinker who brings a practical approach to change in the areas of wellness, business, and overall social impact. His ability to convey vulnerability in all endeavors has given him the ability to move the needle in a meaningful way. Chris’ uncanny ability to share his journey sincerely has landed him in a major documentary viewed on Disney+, National Geographic, and Hulu. It is his utmost desire to scale Ruby Jean’s to be a globally distributed brand while scaling its impact in a parallel fashion. Chris believes health is the commonality of all people and will continue to use his grandmother's likeness as a mirror on every bottle. A mirror that gently urges the brand's consumers to see themselves more clearly, a mirror that encourages a healthier tomorrow with more time to hug our loved ones. Ruby Jean’s trademarked brand slogan is We Make Juice for a Reason, Chris defines that reason as being "Health is freedom and should be available to us all". This desire to make these statements tangible has led to Chris authoring his very first children's book titled; Ruby Jean's Garden. This book has quickly become endeared by Kansas City students, faculty, and parents as it aims to help children identify with the value of a healthier lifestyle as a life tool early in their formative years.

Chris Gives ultimate credit to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and is grateful to be blessed with a beautiful wife and sons.