Crandall, sponsor of anti-Federal Free Lunch legislation, runs a child nutrition and school menus company

by David Safier

Yesterday I posted about Rich Crandall's company, Crandall Corporate Dietitians — he's President and CFO — and wondered if he had any skin in the game with his bill to allow schools to opt out of the Federal free and reduced school lunch program. The company calls itself "the nation's largest provider of dietary consulting and menu services to nursing homes, long-term care facilities, assisted living communities and hospitals across 42 states." Does he stand to profit from a change in the free/reduced lunch program in the state? I said, I didn't know.

Now KPHO carries the story further than I did, and hits paydirt. According to the report, Crandall heads two companies, and one of them is involved with child nutrition programs.

According to his bio, Crandall heads two companies headquartered in Mesa. With one of them he holds contracts in 14 states overseeing USDA child nutrition programs on behalf of state agencies.

The second company is CN Resource (CN stands for "Child Nutrition"), where Crandall, according to his State Senate bio, is President/Managing Member. On the website's home page, it says the company "is the creator and operator of CNMenus, the most comprehensive on-line menu service for America's schools." Want to know more? Call them at (866) 941-MENU.

Crandall makes money by providing menus to schools. And the company's services are geared to State Agencies, which means, the less guidelines from the feds, the better for him. If Arizona school lunch programs separate themselves from federal oversight, Crandall may be in a position of making a heaping helping of money on the deal.