Director Bio: Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson was born and raised in Lillooet. Growing up, his parents always grew a garden and processed much of the food they grew. They also gave food–like veggies, milk and eggs–to low-income families when they could.
This was the foundation that gave Matthew an appreciation for plants and taught him the importance of food security from a young age. At 23, he bought a piece of property and started a garden of his own. However, health problems kept him from working for many years and his moral was low.
One day, it dawned on him that he needed to preserve food and work towards food sustainability. He went to the Old Airport Gardens and bought cucumbers–it’s what they had that day–to make some pickles. The next year he planted potatoes. And so he started on the path that took him, in 2013, to take a 10 month Horticulture Program offered by the Ucwalmicw Centre Society and Thompson Rivers University.
Not long after, Matthew founded the T’it’q’et’s Food Sovereignty Project and Amlec Organic. He believes that growing nutritious food is the best kind of insurance and is working hard to make sure that the T’it’q’et community is well taken care of.