Close Inducted into NAWBO-MN Hall of Fame

Nancy Close, founder and CEO of CKC Good Food, was inducted into the Minnesota Women Business Owners Hall of Fame, recognizing her 30 years’ work to grow her company from serving a single childcare center to today serving about 180 clients sites in the Twin Cities. In 2014, she launched NutriStudents K-12/Menu Freedom to take the intellectual property of CKC Good Food to food service directors nationally.

Close got her start in the hospitality industry working for, and later buying, her parents’ Saint Paul, Minn., restaurant, Caravan Serai. In 1990, she began providing meals from the restaurant to the kids at the childcare center her brother and sister-in-law owned. Word began to spread about the food she provided and other schools and childcares signed on. Through the years, Close has become an authority on federal nutrition programs, food service operations and recipe and menu development for contract food service programs.

Today, CKC Good Food prepares more than 40,000 meals and snacks daily that are served at client sites including public charter and private schools, child and adult care providers, and out-of-school enrichment programs. The company’s meals are served to people ages 3 to 93 and of broad ethnic backgrounds.

CKC Good Food experienced significant growth after moving into its first company-owned commissary in Eagan in 2022. The 42,540-square-foot facility underwent an extensive buildout to convert the former mail house into CKC Good Food’s commercial kitchen, warehouse, cold storage space and corporate offices.

The Minnesota Women Business Owners Hall of Fame, from the Minnesota Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, honors women entrepreneurs who have demonstrated a significant leadership role in their field, have shaped opportunities for other women business owners and made an enduring impact on their community. Since its inception in 2013, 90 women have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.