On June 25th, we welcomed a new store in Reno, California. There are many green aspects of our new store from skylights to new LED lights in frozen cases. One of the most exciting is a new partnership with Full Circle Compost and Hungry Mother Organics. At Whole Foods Market our sustainability goals include moving to zero waste by keeping organic waste out of landfills. Since the city of Reno doesn’t compost, Full Circle is going to take our food waste and make it into compost for us. Full Circle recycles organic waste into high quality soil amendments and custom soil mixes for the Reno area. Hungry Mother Organics is the nursery part of the business and uses the soil Full Circle produces to grow backyard garden starts and vegetables for local restaurants. My favorite part about Full Circle is that they are located at the Carson City Prison Work Farm. They use inmate labor to run the compost farm and the nursery. The prisoners get fresh air, learn job skills and get to eat all the fresh salad they want!

Mark of Hungry Mother Organics in his green house where compost from the food waste we send becomes part of the soil that grows these lovely tomato plants.

Vegetable scraps we send are placed in the giant worm box and the worms eat it to produce a nutrient rich fertilizer called worm castings.

Our first load of compost being dumped at Full Circle and Adesina sorting through it to see if our Team Members have learned the right things to put in the compost compactor.