Ruby Jean's Juicery | Black Travel Across America

That same spirit is alive and healthy today all over this city. Black owned spaces have a knack for preserving our past while nurturing the future.

So you brought her in? Case in point, Ruby Jean's Juicery, which combines nutritious food with family roots and is named after the grandmother of founder and Kansas City native Chris Good. Ruby Jeans. They really started about ten blocks or so that way.

Okay. My grandmother, she was a really, really pivotal person in my life, the woman of a few words. But, you know, when black grandma speaks, you listen. You better.

Listen. My grandma came from Vian, Oklahoma. Little bitty dot on the map. You look too fast, you miss it. But she brought from Vian and Kansas City this love of soulful cooking.

And the part that really kind of set it off course was that soul food is not it's not this lifestyle that you should live day in and day out. And that's the only way she knew to cook. That's the only way she knew to provide for her family.

Unfortunately, when my grandmother was 61 years old, I was a 14 year old kid. She got really sick really fast with type two diabetes. She didn't really believe in health care. And unfortunately, that costs her dearly and us as well.

And so I carried that through life, you know, one, to show people like man, my grandmothers were amazing. Fast forward. God gave me that ability through Ruby Jean’s Juicery.

And I love right here on your wall it says Health is freedom. And that's so important when we're speaking about black communities, because we know historically our communities are food deserts.

But then there's a Chris Good, who's from Kansas City, who says, I'm going to open up this juicery in honor of my grandmother, literally in a food desert. This is a first ever healthy business on the entire east side of Kansas City in the history of this city.

And the entire east side of Kansas City. When it first came to me, I questioned it. I said, I know this place 30th and Truce like will this work?

And so when I grappled with that and I rested on the idea, I said, you know what? I got to do this because if I don't do this, it may not ever happen.