06/01/2021
To the wonderful Kingwood Community (long - please read to bottom):
To friends, foodies and Great Harvest fans,
Our hearts are heavy with bittersweet news. Heavy foremost with the sweetness of gratitude for your encouragement and patronage of Great Harvest Kingwood! It has been a difficult but very fulfilling journey for us. Your support has been inseparably connected to the development of a community haven and a profitable business. Together we have weathered floods and a winter storm and a pandemic. That’s a lot for five years! We have sustained each other with kindness and cookies, laughter and lunch, blessings and bread. (Thank heavens you like cookies and have thereby kept our biggest cookie monster in check!)
The additional heaviness on our hearts is rooted in the bitter news that Great Harvest Kingwood will close its doors on June 5, 2021. Not because we have failed you nor that you have failed us but sometimes life comes at us with unexpected curve balls. It doesn’t always make sense in present tense. Business has never been better for us than it is right now!
Before we married, Clent the Texan economist, talked of desires to open a restaurant and Nikki the linguist from Idaho, preferred overseas living adventures. We agreed on Jesus, open minds and 4-6 children. That was our start. In a few months, we will celebrate 28 years of marriage. Among other things, we lived in Venezuela for nearly four years and have spent over six years in the restaurant business. We still agree on Jesus, our 5 children grew to 6 with a wedding and there are yet uncharted adventures on the horizon.
Great Harvest Kingwood began when Clent voted to trade his CPA work and business travel for hands in the dough and community connections and the Sullivan children were all in school so Nikki had some discretionary time. At first we didn’t understand that the strongest bonds would come through working with wonderful people behind the counter. We have been blessed to grow attached to many amazing people! Some are bread sculptors, all night creators of edible art, experimental cooks, calm trainers, dedicated cleaner uppers, notorious for dumb jokes, pun masters or quiet and shy. Others have great memories for faces, names and favorite foods. They come to work bringing their best, strive to support each other and care about the welcome and quality of food you receive! So glad these bonds don’t have to close with the front doors!
We hoped, researched and planned for 2+ years to expand our little shop into a larger gathering place; however, each time we neared commitments for a change, some piece of our family basics fell apart and we put it on hold. Perhaps we have been slow to recognize that these recurring events do not lead us to a Great Harvest expansion. Numerous family needs and health challenges beg for more of our time and attention so we began to make plans to transition the business to potential buyers in February. Business deals are always uncertain propositions, and ours did not work out. Our space on Royal Forest Drive was leased to other local foodies, who will share their faith and culinary prowess with you as well!
We treasure the friendships that have grown across the counter as well as those within our team. There are many who have touched us like the one who generously gifts Cinnamon Chip loaves to her favorite people about every 6 weeks, the neighbors who eat at least one meal a week from our kitchen, the senior who doesn’t come in any more for biscotti but his family continues to deliver it to him weekly, and the coffee connoisseurs whose drink orders we know by heart. We looked forward to the regular sightings of those who have incorporated our baking into their holiday traditions and hearing the news of the student athletes for whom we provide team meals. There are several pets we know by name who know our dog treat packaging by sight and sound! We have shared prayers and exchanged references for doctors, counselors and great beauticians and watched babies grow into friendly preschoolers. We have been honored to be entrusted to cater business lunches. We knew who needed their Gluten X bread hand sliced, and who can be expected for regular sourdough stops. We’ve enjoyed happy banter with the jewels whose consistent lunch orders include an Izze, chicken salad, and chips or ½ Turkey Bacon Club (hold the onions), chips and drink. How we will miss our frequent interactions with these good people and so many others!
Of course, such a wonderful community would by natural extension foster great organizations! Working with Steve Criswell of Vertere Coffee has been a Godsend. The volunteers at the Society of St. Stephen and Target Hunger have been so gracious to transport and connect resources to needs in the way of our unsold bread to those struggling to fund groceries. Good news in the Liveable Forest is spread with generosity by the Forest Image, Kingwood.com and the Community Impact team. Our neighbor tenants are all terrific people working hard to deliver great services to the community as does the leadership of each of the local churches! Working shoulder to shoulder with all of you has strengthened and inspired us. Thank you!
We have every reason to believe that Jesus will continue to watch over each of you and each of us. We have seen His miracles. In times of crisis, when He whispers to give bread away, somehow the baskets gathered at days’ end always contain enough to keep the home front going. No doubt that the “Bread of Life” knows how to nourish hungry souls! He will surely continue to offer each of us opportunities to lift those around us.
This is our last week of business, and therefore we will be working hard to clear out our ingredient inventories. Some additional favorites will appear as we work through our stock of ingredients, like toffee bars and coconut teacakes! Please encourage all those to whom you have gifted Great Harvest cards or coupons, to use them before our doors close on June 5th! We will also be posting specials so please check back often and we hope you will find some time to stop by and say goodbye and take a goodie or two with you!
Much love and gratitude for time well spent together from your team at Great Harvest Kingwood!
May you have all the blessings that life has to offer! Love, Clent & Nikki Sullivan
