about Great Harvest
Two college kids and a stubborn belief that bread should be made the slow way. Fifty years later, that belief runs every Great Harvest bakery.
It began in the seventies, when Pete and Laura Wakeman baked scratch-made whole grain bread to help cover tuition at Cornell. A hike across Montana in 1975 won them over for good, and in 1976 they opened the first Great Harvest bakery in Great Falls. Neighbors soon asked to open their own, and the franchise was born two years later. Growth stayed slow and organic. Our headquarters are still in Dillon, Montana, and the values that charmed the Wakemans — authenticity, camaraderie, individuality — still run the place. Today, more than 150 bakeries operate across all 50 states.
be loose & have fun. bake phenomenal bread. run fast to help customers.Create strong, exciting bakeries. and give generously to others.®
Most franchises start when someone writes down a recipe and invites others to copy it. That’s proven, low-risk — and it’s only half of what Great Harvest is.
We give owners all the backing of a traditional franchise, plus the freedom of an old-school neighborhood bakery that’s evolved with the times. Every Great Harvest cafe is baked fresh daily and shaped by the person who owns it, built on a shared belief in excellence, generosity, and having a genuinely good time doing it.
Great Harvest is headquartered in Dillon, Montana — population 4,134. Every bakery reflects its own owner and community, but generosity ties them all together.
150+
independently owned bakeries and cafes across all 50 states
$1M+
donated last year alone by local bakeries to causes they care about
70
Shutdown Shelves opened for furloughed workers in 2019
Owners in Annapolis, Maryland, whose families were touched by Alzheimer’s, give 100% of the sales from their Memory Loaf bread to the Alzheimer’s Association.
In Dillon, Great Harvest helped the community raise $11,080 in three days toward a new bus for the local American Legion baseball team.
Our support center team is devoted to bread perfection. We spend our days supporting the bakery owners and teams who do, from perfecting recipes and sourcing the finest ingredients to helping every bakery thrive in its community. We’re relentless about it because we know what a great loaf means to the people who share it. When our bakeries succeed, every slice is better for it.
Behind every bakery is a small, dedicated group at our home office — hand-picked for their skill and their character — who support franchisees and help make sure every customer has a great experience, one loaf at a time.
our owners are a diverse, inspiring group united by one thing: living out our mission of generosity, great service, and wholesome food. From former corporate executives to small-town schoolteachers, each has found their own path to owning a bakery that bakes a difference in its community.
Find a bakery near you, or learn what it takes to open one yourself.