Great Harvest Bread Company is a Montana-made business. With over 200 hundred locations across the country, it’s earned a delicious reputation for serving only the freshest products to its customers.
Even though this bread company's roots are planted firmly in Montana, franchises are all over Idaho. Currently there are three Great Harvest Bread Companies in the Treasure Valley. Two of the three are owned by A.J and Jon Whiting. The two grew up in Southern Idaho and met at Boise State. They later got married and had six kids, all of them playing a big role in the company.
The Whiting's interest in the Great Harvest franchise began after their eldest daughter started working at one of the locations in Washington State, they quickly became obsessed with the product and decided to buy into the business. A.J tells 6 On Your Side that despite being apart of a franchise system, “we actually have the freedom to do whatever we want we can bake any loaves of bread we want depending on what our customers and local needs are.” That being said, she and her husband think it’s important to incorporate locally made products as much as possible, “we do use local produce we use Idaho honey in all of our bread we try to source locally as much as we can, in fact, our jams our jellies our syrups are all from a local Boise company that grows everything right here in the valley.”
The only Great Harvest Bread Co. policy all stores are required to follow are grinding fresh wheat every day, using Montana wheat and selling bread baked within a day.
Both Great Harvest locations in Meridian and Eagle donate any baked goods or bread not sold within the one day window to the Idaho and Meridian food banks three times a week.
For more information on Great Harvest Bread Company in Meridian, click here.
