We heal poor soil through bioremediation, teach holistic agricultural practices, and incubate the next generation of local farms — preserving heritage fruit varieties and raising silvopasture free-range eggs and humanely raised meat along the way. Together, this strengthens food sovereignty, cuts our community's reliance on imported food, and grows real connection through caring for land, animals, and each other.
Thurston County's growers, gardeners, and the Food Bank all run into the same stubborn barrier: soil that needs real help, and few affordable ways to get it there.
Much of the county's available farmland carries soil damaged by decades of overuse — poor or even contaminated, and hard to farm well without real repair first.
High-quality compost and soil amendments are often too expensive or hard to find, keeping homesteaders and residents from gardening the way they'd like to.
The Thurston County Food Bank's own production gardens face those same rising costs, stretching an already tight budget further.
Local ranches and farms often pay to haul away excess manure — a resource going to waste instead of helping heal the ground it came from.
Without healthier soil to build on, local ranchers and growers face higher costs and lower capacity than the land could otherwise support.
Coordinating this kind of work across the county currently falls to one farm manager overseeing multiple sites — there's real capacity to grow this work, but doing it well takes more hands than one person can offer.
The dedicated staff and volunteers running the Food Bank's own production gardens — we want to lower their costs and lighten their load, not add to it.
The market gardens and beginning farmers across the county who grow food for the Food Bank and the Food Source Foundation's network, often on soil that needs real help before it can produce well.
Homesteaders, small livestock owners, and residents trying to garden well on a budget — people who deserve access to good compost without a high price tag standing in the way.
Families and individuals across the county who deserve nourishing, dignified access to good food, however it reaches them.
Lazy Lamb Orchards is led by people who've spent years working on Thurston County's food system, alongside two trusted advisors doing related work nearby.
Robert founded Lazy Lamb Orchards to bring heritage fruit, pasture-raised eggs, and humanely raised meat to Thurston County families, and to help the Food Bank offer culturally appropriate meat without stretching its team any thinner.
Chris founded Food Source Foundation and Souper Sunday, feeding people across Olympia for nearly a decade. He's helping us build strong administrative practices, find grant opportunities, and connect with an existing network of street feeds.
David built Urban Harvest Exchange's network of neighbor-run raised-bed gardens in Tacoma. He's guiding our farm design and helping connect our harvests to food hubs across the region.
Full Circle Compost turns excess manure from local ranches, farms, and private livestock owners into high-quality, garden-grade compost — healing depleted soil, and giving that compost back to the community for free.
Ranch-to-compost sourcingWe collect excess manure from local ranches, farms, and private livestock owners across the county — material that would otherwise go to waste, and often costs money to haul away.
Hot composting, vermiculture & microbial inoculationUsing 30-day hot composting, vermiculture, and microbial inoculation, we turn that manure into high-quality, garden-grade compost in bulk — within 6 to 12 months of launch.
Free compost for the Food Bank & communityThrough an MOU, we supply the Thurston County Food Bank's own production gardens directly, and offer compost free to homesteaders and residents — lowering costs for the Food Bank, removing barriers to gardening for the community, and helping heal soil damaged by decades of overuse.
Full Circle Compost is just the beginning. As it grows, we're dreaming bigger — toward a future where our whole community grows more of its own good food, together.
Growing our composting infrastructureAs Full Circle Compost grows, we hope to invest in permanent composting infrastructure — built with the same land stewardship expertise guiding our other work — so we can process manure from more ranches and get free compost to more of the county's gardens and farms.
Land for silvopastureOnce Full Circle Compost is helping heal soil across the county, we hope to purchase land of our own to grow into regenerative silvopasture — giving heritage fruit varieties that have nearly vanished from grocery shelves, a small flock of easy-care Dorset sheep, and healthy soil room to thrive together, right here at home.
Holistic agricultural educationWe want to teach regenerative techniques — permaculture, silvopasture, soil stewardship — through workshops led by volunteers and mentors who already know this land, helping neighbors grow their own food with confidence and deepening the community's connection to the land that feeds it.
Farm incubationWe're working toward grant-supported incubator farms that give new and beginning farmers land, hands-on mentorship, and a real head start — growing the county's own capacity to produce food instead of importing it.
Neighborhoods growing food, not just lawnsWe want to work alongside neighborhoods across the county, with volunteers helping coordinate, to turn more yards and shared spaces into food-growing ground — so neighbors can grow more for the Food Bank, and more for each other.
We're incorporated as a nonprofit in Washington State and are in the process of securing our federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. We rely on a mix of grants, individual donations, and in-kind support from local farms and ranches — funding that goes directly toward compost production, our regenerative silvopasture and orchard work, and supporting our partnership with the Thurston County Food Bank.
Mainly four things: compost production equipment and materials, land for regenerative silvopasture and heritage fruit, holistic agricultural education programs, and farm incubation to help expand local food production capacity so the region relies less on outside supply over time.
We track pounds of compost produced and distributed, the number of ranches and farms contributing manure, and how consistently the Food Bank's gardens and community members are receiving it. We also check in directly with the Food Bank to see whether the compost is actually meeting their gardens' needs.
We use proven hot composting methods that reach temperatures high enough to kill off pathogens and weed seeds, paired with vermiculture and microbial inoculation to build genuinely garden-grade compost. We also work with Thurston Conservation District for soil and compost testing, so quality is checked by an outside expert rather than just taken on our word.
No — that's part of the point. The farm manager already does so much for this community. By handling compost sourcing and distribution ourselves, including the MOU with the Food Bank's own gardens, we lift coordination work off their shoulders instead of adding to it.
Find our contact details below — we're especially looking for ranches and farms with excess manure to contribute, funders who want to help scale compost production, and community members interested in the Food Bank garden partnership.
Whether you have manure to contribute, want compost for your own garden, or just want to learn more about Full Circle Compost, reach out any time.