Aimee Amacher worked for 16 years to improve the health and appearance of her clients’ “exteriors,” if you will. A licensed esthetician, she provided skin treatments and skin care education. Today, she’s a registered dietician, and the help she provides originates from her clients’ insides.
“People need more fruits & vegetables in their lives,” Aimee contends. “They think they’re getting enough, but they’re not.”
Aimee says there’s an easy and delicious way to make that happen — with juice. So, it makes sense that she opened the Good Fork Nutrition and Juice shop in Chehalis. Located downtown at 505 North Market Boulevard, the shop is open Tuesday to Wednesday and Friday to Saturday, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.
Steps in the Progression to Good Fork Nutrition and Juice
Aimee started down the “juice path” while still working as an esthetician. The route began when she grew interested in the plant-based lifestyle and its effects on health and wellness and, subsequently, skin. Her interest inspired her to take a nutrition class at Centralia College. She loved it so much that she enrolled in the Nutrition and Dietetics Program at Seattle Pacific University.
After graduation, she worked as a dietitian technician at Swedish Hospital in Seattle and then completed the required year-long internship to become a registered dietitian. This endeavor was a big push toward where she sees herself in the future. Still today, though, Aimee has identified several more steps ahead before she reaches her career goal destination.
Hard Work Makes it Happen for Amiee Amacher
Aimee started the juice business by creating fruit and vegetable juices for her friends, family and coworkers. She found there was an actual demand for the product, which worked into her spending significant time making juice, bottling it and then delivering it by car.
“So this is nice,” Aimee says, looking around her shop with a smile. “One location.”
Every day of Aimee’s life is predictable and scripted. Every Monday and Thursday, she has to wash, weigh and chop all fruit and vegetables, then juice and bottle them. The juice she makes on Mondays is to stock the shelves for the Tuesday and Wednesday shop days. Likewise, she makes juice on Thursday is for Friday and Saturday sales.
Aimee uses a cold press method, which preserves the vitamins and minerals from the produce. The result is various juices with different nutrient values, health benefits and flavors. For instance, in the juice titled “Blue,” due to its color, one of the ingredients is E3 Live Spirulina, which helps joint flexibility and reduces inflammation. But it’s the fuji apple and pineapple that makes it so tasty. And that’s just one of the juices. Her cooler display case is a rainbow of colors, flavors and benefits.
The store also sells two shot-sized concoctions, one for inflammation and one for immunity. Good Fork Nutrition and Juice also offers two fruit bowls that are delicious, nutritious and very popular. One is based on acai, and the other is dragon fruit. Both are superfoods high in antioxidants. She blends them with house-made almond milk and then tops the result with gluten-free granola and other fresh fruits such as bananas, strawberries and blueberries.
“I am passionate about the ingredients I use,” Aimee says. “Everything is organic, and everything is whole foods with nothing added.”
Aimee even makes her own almond milk every morning. In addition, she strives to buy her ingredients as locally as possible. Right now, she is buying some of her organic produce in the Newaukum Valley but hopes that as summer comes, she can utilize more organically grown fruits and vegetables from the local area.
Aimee receives lots of positive feedback on her product. “It’s really rewarding,” she says.
The Future of Good Fork Nutrition and Juice
The next step in progress is for Amiee to keep the store open on juicing days. She doesn’t like having to be closed on Mondays and Thursdays, but she can’t stretch herself to operate the front counter as well as the work going on in the back room. Yet. It’s all a progression.
The entrepreneur’s goal is to hire people to take her place on juicing days and work behind the counter. This would free her up to practice nutrition counseling as a registered dietitian.
“I want to meet people where they are at,” she says, explaining that her clients will start with getting bloodwork completed, and then, together, they will examine what the numbers show and come up with a nutrition plan to make the needed changes. “People have an opportunity to change their numbers with what they eat,” she says.
And Aimee is ready. For now, though, she’s fully committed to doing the work needed to make Good Fork Nutrition and Juice a success.
Good Fork Nutrition and Juice
505 North Market Blvd., Chehalis
