I spend a lot of time focused on how we train our customers (the local bakery owners) and evolve our training and services. We are very close to launching Great Harvest University, a new training program for new whole wheat bakery owners. Many employees and bakery owners have contributed and worked hard to make this a reality. It will be fun to watch how this evolves as it’s used and constantly improved.
Another long term goal of mine was the addition of a corporate chef. (If you haven’t read them yet, you may want to check out some of his posts, like Tomato Basil Goat Cheese Saute.) With Scott and his expertise on board, we are looking at some of our breads in a new light. Some of us weren’t sure how the addition of a chef would work in this system, since so much of our innovation previously came from experiments taking place in 200 bakeries daily across the country. But we’ve found that it has worked well. The growing foodie culture and general awareness about the role of a chef, from places like the Food Network, over the past few years has definitley helped this transition.
Our nutrition specialist role is another example of how we have improved our training and education programs (for bakery owners and customers) over the last several years. Melissa shares a lot of helpful information about whole grains and nutrition throughout the system, including some great blog posts as well. Now that we’ve added this as a permanent position, it’s hard to imagine how we got along with it all those years.
In the coming months and years we will continue to add programs and people to train all the local bakery owners and spread the word about how whole grains are an integral part of a healthy diet -- and why the whole grains you choose should be from Great Harvest. We are striving to keep our message and menu as fresh as our bread.
Thanks for reading.
