The Bread Business Blog

Janet and Jeff Ganoung have a deep rooted passion.  As owners of the Charlotte, NC  Great Harvest Bread Companies in King’s Court and the Shops at Piper Glen, the couple has hosted an Animal Kneads Day for the past six years raising approximately $50,000 for spay and neuter clinics in Mecklenburg County.

1. Our whole grain flour is simple.

To get whole grain flour, we put wheat kernels in the mill and fresh whole grain flour comes out. Our wheat kernels are not milled in mass quantities. Unlike commercial milling, each kernel does not have its parts separated and its germ toasted for longer shelf life to be recombined in the same relative proportions.  Our flour is exactly how it exists in the intact whole grain. What goes in the mill is precisely what comes out.

Trust absolutely has to be earned.  One cannot walk into a room and say “trust me” and expect to be taken seriously.

I have one consultant I work with where I do 99% of what they say without much thought.  I trust them that much.  But, it wasn’t always that way. 

I was really skeptical at first.  I tried the first suggestion and it worked.  I tried the second and it worked.  I tried the third and it worked.  In all three cases I did some research before I took the plunge, but each time let me do a little less because my trust in them was growing.  Now, I just do what they say because they earned my trust. 

Janet Savadge and LeeAnn Aldridge are long-time friends who have dreamed for years of owning a small business together.  They have embarked upon that journey and this summer, they will open the doors to their Great Harvest Bread Company franchise in Savannah, GA.  

They have each lived in Savannah almost twenty years.  Janet's expertise is in management and organization, having been an office manager in various capacities.  LeeAnn has been an attorney for more than twenty years, specializing in franchise finance and working with franchisors such as McDonalds, Wendy's and Burger King regularly. 

LeeAnn started looking for a franchise opportunity about five years ago, but wanted one that she could believe in and use to help spread her passion for healthy eating. When she remembered Great Harvest Bread Co. from her high school years in Pennsylvania, she pitched the idea to Janet and Janet enthusiastically jumped on board. Together, they are so excited to introduce this healthy, whole grain bakery to Savannah.  

There are many diets out there—each of them claiming to have finally found the hidden root of obesity, discomfort, and disease.

With each diet requiring restrictions and or omissions of specific foods and or certain food groups, it is quite impossible that they all can be truthful or else the key to living healthfully would be well—not eating.

So how do you go about deciphering between a healthy and a dangerous diet?

Yes.  Some things can be learned with proper coaching and effort.  Others can’t.  

I can’t be coached to win the Tour de France because I just don’t have that skill set no matter how hard I try.  It is a different gene pool. I can be coached to qualify for the Kona Ironman but would I ever put in the effort to actually do that? I can be coached to cycle almost anything including a shot to ride the Tour de France route. 

Three scenarios and three different results. No way.  Yes, if I try hard enough.  Yep, I can do that.  

I love the mission statement of Great Harvest – and the part of the mission statement that I identify with most is “giving generously to others”. 

When I interviewed for my position with the company, those four words drew me to apply for the job.  There was a sense of excitement, and I “thought how cool is that?” - a company specifically addressing “giving generously to others” in their mission statement. 

Do you know that, according to Philanthropy.com, on average corporations donated approximately 5.2% of their profits to charitable organizations with cash contributions for fiscal years ending in and 2011?  Giving USA 2012 reported that charitable giving accounted for 2% of the United States GDP.  In 2011, total giving by Americans was $298.3 billion. 

I got asked that question yesterday so it got me thinking.

The answer is less obvious than those of us in the franchise industry may think.  The context of the question was from a potential franchisor (“Can I franchise my business?”) but the answer is basically the same for a potential franchisee.  

First, for the franchisor:

You most likely have heard about the glycemic index, but may be wondering what it means or how to use it to improve your own health.

The glycemic index (GI) is a number describing a specific food’s ability to raise blood sugars for every 50 grams of carbohydrate consumed in relation to ingestion of 50 grams of straight glucose. It may seem like the glycemic index would be a simple tool to aid in blood sugar control, but interpreting a GI is a lot more complex than just shooting for a low score, like in a game of golf. There are many other factors that affect your blood sugar response.

First and foremost, it is important to note that the glycemic index is based off of 50 grams of carbohydrate from a specific food — not 50 grams of that food itself.

For example, if you have heard that whole grain bread has a higher glycemic index than a candy bar—it is often overlooked that it takes about 4 oz of whole grain bread (two of our big half inch slice breads) to get 50 grams of carbohydrate whereas it only takes a 2.5 oz Mars candy bar to get those 50 grams. Clearly, it takes a lot more bread to elicit a blood sugar response that is higher than the candy bar. The actual portion size makes a huge difference on the effect a food has on blood sugar. A high glycemic index food can still be healthy if eaten as a normal or smaller portion size.