Be loose and have fun; bake phenomenal bread; run fast to help customers; and give generously to others.

That's Great Harvest Bread Company's mission and it's not just something they preach, but something they have actually put into practice.

Walking into their Woodruff Road store location, customers are immediately greeted with an irresistible offer to sample a slice from one of their freshly baked breads.

"We talked about the overall Great Harvest experience, and what we mean by that is that when a customer comes in, we really want them to feel like a neighbor or a friend, not a customer in the sense that there is this distance relationship," said Great Harvest Bread Company Owner Mike Vanzura. "We really are in customer service and just happen to be a bakery."

Mike was teaching part time and working at Great Harvest when him and his wife Tracy were approached by the bread company owners to become partners. Eventually, the original owners decided to sell their part of the partnership and the couple bought the business.

"Owning a small business was a dream that Tracy and I had for a long time," Mike said. "We feel like in a way that the business almost fell into our lap or it's just something that the progression was sort of natural as far as becoming owners of the company."

In contrast to other commercial bread makers, the flour in Great Harvest's whole-grain breads is never more than 48 hours old which means that essential nutrients that begin to break down over a short time are preserved. The Great Harvest staff begin baking their bread every morning at 4:30 a.m. and the entire process takes about five hours.

"Our niche in the baking industry is whole grains and we really take a lot of pride in that," said Vanzura. "Our overall main product is bread. It's why we consider ourselves a bread company and not a bakery per se at this point."

Great Harvest's wide assortment of breads includes everything from Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Tea Cake to Parmesan Peppercorn to Carmel Apple Delight. The company also features a sweet's corner that includes savannah bars, scones, muffins and cookies. Each week the bread company provides a variety for shoppers to sample and purchase at the Carolina First Saturday Market.

"The Saturday Market is such a unique experience. I've never been to Europe, but in my mind it feels like a European market where you have a lot of different vendors, you have a variety of produce, you have artists, you have the music," Vanzura said. "There's just so much energy going on there, it's hard not to go on Saturday morning and be a part of it."

For more information on Great Harvest Bread Company, visit their web site at www.carolinabreadheads.com.