Shaping The Future Of Senior Living: Inside Diningrd’s Acquisition Of Crandall

For more than 30 years, DiningRD has been an industry leader in dietary consulting and menu technology services for senior living communities and residents.

Now, the innovative foodservice leader is bringing another company with an impressive industry history into the fold with their acquisition of Crandall Corporate Dietitians in September. Founded by Linda Crandall in 1966, Crandall has brought tailored menus and consulting services to senior living operators for nearly six decades.

While integrating two rich company cultures can take time, enveloping Crandall’s extensive network has created a wealth of new opportunities for DiningRD to showcase a nationwide network of over 800 dietitians, along with a host of new capabilities, technologies, best practices and insights to deliver both health and dining wins to operators. As DiningRD continues to solidify its path moving forward, four key insights into the future of senior living have emerged.

Strategic partnerships can accelerate expansion

“Crandall has long been a pioneer and a cornerstone in senior living, in all things dietitian consulting, foodservice, and software, and we long look for where we can make partnerships that help our clients,” says Amy Bollam, DiningRD VP of Strategy. With Crandall, DiningRD will expand its coverage area, especially in California, Oregon and Washington state, while increasing its ability to serve larger operators.

The fusing of their foodservice platforms is critical too, giving both DiningRD and Crandall new ways to deliver for clients.

“This acquisition is just such a great opportunity for both companies,” Bollam says. “Where we see the biggest strategy-related opportunity here is around the software, and around making sure that we can learn and adapt from each other’s existing platforms to create even more intuitive and enhanced features for our clients.

With the growth, Bollam anticipates new benefits to operators in every area of foodservice, everything from GPO partnerships to EHR integrations to menu design.

“We are enthusiastic about the opportunities this acquisition presents,” says Rich Crandall, President and COO of Crandall Corporate Dietitians. “Joining forces with DiningRD is an exciting step forward for our team, and leveraging DiningRD’s advanced technology and extensive resources will enable us to continue offering innovative services to new clients and expanded markets.”

Combining expertise can help drive innovation

In a value-based and wellness-centric world, creating scale through partnerships is critical. That’s why that network of 800 registered dietitians — a mix of full employees and contractors -— matters.

“There’s power in a number,” Bollam says. “Our clientele are changing, so we are making sure that we’re adapting.”

That means improving and increasing wellness offerings and sharing resources and best practices. DiningRD is innovating with artificial intelligence for menu creation and menu approval, especially in assisted living and up, where residents increasingly have more dietary needs and restrictions.

“It’s not regulated in every single state, but regardless of a requirement, it’s still just the right thing to do to make sure you’re providing a balanced menu,” Bollam says. “Seniors are asking for that. Our baby boomers are the most informed nutrition consumers that we’ve had, ever.”

In short, larger communities of experts in the field can help everyone touching senior living dining to be more impactful.

“This is the kind of forward-thinking we’re doing, and it starts from pooling these individuals to think about creative ways that we can serve our clients,” she says.

Strategic collaborations spur technological growth

At the heart of the partnership is the shared goal of advancing technology in senior living nutrition. DiningRD’s proprietary software already streamlines menu planning, dietary compliance and foodservice operations. With Crandall on board, the combined entity plans to integrate the best features of both software systems, further enhancing Dining RD’s user-friendly interface that blends efficiency with personalization.

“The biggest thing is we’ve now grown our development team exponentially,” Bollam says. “And with technology, any time you add new perspectives, you create a more dynamic product.”

This strategic collaboration also unlocks new opportunities for data-driven insights that will improve resident care and drive operational success for corporations and communities.

“Better, more meaningful data will allow operators to deliver results to residents faster,” Bollam says.

Partnerships help dining staff do more with less

Like with many areas of senior living staffing, dining staff members are stretched thin. Collaboration and consolidation of both Crandall and DiningRD’s industry partner relationships will also help build and enhance resources for the end user of the companies’ technology and education services.

“We want to ensure we bring solutions to the fingertips of a very stressed workforce: a culinary manager who’s trying to quite literally cook the bacon, lead his staff and do everything else that goes into that day-to-day operation,” Bollam says. “So the software product that they’re utilizing has to be easy, it has to be intuitive and it has to be well connected with the other products that are being used in the rest of the operation.”

Other important areas of this toolkit all circle around purchasing: billing integration, nutrition information and pricing information.

“One of the things we’re hearing the most from providers is that because of the rising cost of food, keeping costs in control or just being informed of those cost measures is still a very sensitive subject,” Bollam says. “So we continue to make enhancements when it comes to our vendors, broadline food distributors and their products. Having a strong partner like Crandall can only improve what our corporations and communities have access to.”

This Views article is sponsored by DiningRD. To learn more about how DiningRD and Crandall Corporate Dietitians are shaping the future of senior living through strategic innovation, visit www.DiningRD.com or contact sales@diningRD.com.

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