By Amanda Moses
Spring Creek Towers’ (SCT) own entrepreneur Mark Forde Jr. has been making strides to further his business and healthy initiative “The Ginger Shot Man.”
Forde has been working at the Brooklyn Sports Club (BSC) for approximately four years and has always been passionate about leading a healthy lifestyle. However, it was not until the pandemic occurred that Forde realized the need for healthier options for those who live in underserved communities.
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored this as it proved to be deadly for those with underlying illnesses such as heart and lung diseases as well as diabetes. It was at that moment an idea struck Forde, who is also an avid basketball player: Why not create an affordable nutritious option for his community?
Forde lives by the basketball motto, “Take your shot,” which he firmly embraced when he utilized his stimulus check in 2020 to invest in starting “The Ginger Shot Man,” a cold-pressed juice company.
Ginger became Forde’s center focus when he got extremely sick in September 2019, a few months shy from when everything was shut down due to COVID-19.
“I very rarely get sick, and in 2019, and everything over the counter was not working. So, a friend of mine suggested that I buy ginger and boil some tea, but I’m not a tea drinker. I went to a juice bar and tried a shot of ginger [with water] and literally within seconds I had to run to the bathroom because it brought up a lot of mucus and it cleared a lot of it from my lungs,” Forde said.
Forde began to research more about ginger, which according to medical experts are said to be a root vegetable filled with nutrients and antioxidants that have several health benefits especially for the stomach (constipation, bloating, and intestinal gas).
“When I know something works, I incorporate it into my everyday life,” Forde said.
He began using a juicer and started making small shot bottles using for himself and others to try at the BSC. It was then that Forde realized the magnitude of what he stumbled upon. In food desert communities that have a plethora of fast-food options but limited nutritious items, selling small shot of ginger became a much-needed oasis.
Since then, Forde has been fortifying and legitimatizing his business, making sure everything is trademarked and up to Food and Drug Administration standards (FDA).
During his journey, he even taught students in Teen Central to “take your shot” and learn how to start their own business in 2022.
Last month, on March 30th, Forde became a sponsor at NYC Mayor Adams’ Women’s Health Summit where he introduced his Ginger Shot drinks to the administration and explained its benefits. Forde was one of a hundred experts who spoke at the “Women’s Health Agenda” which is focused on dismantling the inequity of female health options from chronic disease, birth equity, mental health, and reproductive health.
Forde believes in empowering others to lead a healthy lifestyle, and he hopes that the Ginger Shot Man can lead them on that journey. Some people think that Forde should create a storefront to sell his ginger shots, but Forde is adamant on making his drink available for everyone no matter where they are.
“A part of the reason I don’t want a storefront is that this was started when a lot of businesses were closed, so to help people when they couldn’t get, I’d get it to them,” Forde said.
The next step in his journey however is getting his business FDA approved so that he can use a factory to mass produce his cold-pressed Ginger shots using the most state-of-the-art environmentally friendly machinery. Forde must send samples of his ginger shots to get tested by the FDA; however, this costs about $16,300.
It hasn’t been an easy journey, and despite writing over 20 grants Forde has not been able to garner the funds needs to pay for the FDA licensing. He has now created a GoFundMe to help kick-start the money needed to start the FDA approval process.
“Food is meant to be enjoyed, not kill you. There has to be a balance. I want to do more to let people understand more about healthy eating and making this more interactive,” Forde said.
Photo by Amanda Moses
