There is a strange, quiet violence to losing yourself. It’s not like the dramatic imaginings of the cinema. It happens when you aren’t looking. It creeps in under dim lights, loud music, and $1,000 suits, and before you know it, it becomes who you are.
Matthew Gauger was the man behind the velvet rope: a nightclub manager, a familiar name in nightlife, a figure of access and excess. But then, as with so many, the pandemic arrived and kicked over the scaffolding of his life. The music stopped. The doors closed. And when the party was over, he faced the long, unlit mirror of his own life.
After months of quarantine, with little to do, Gauger went looking for some kind of purpose, anything to break up the day in day out monotony. He turned to the dirt.
From Nightlife to Seed Life
“I started a garden with no clue what I was doing,” Gauger recalls. “I just wanted to see if something would grow.”
It turns out something did. Today, under his social handle, Gauger speaks to an audience of over 1.6 million followers across platforms. He shares lessons not just about gardening but about healing, humility, and hope. What started as lighthearted content became something deeper: instruction in self-sufficiency, storytelling rooted in shared human need, and a call to community resilience.
But the true harvest has been offscreen.
The Rise of Here We Grow
In 2023, Gauger founded Here We Grow, a nonprofit born from his desire to turn digital impact into real-world aid. The organization’s goals are expansive yet deeply local: to combat food insecurity, restore dignity through work and learning, and empower individuals with the tools to grow their own nourishment, both literally and spiritually.
The nonprofit began with The Greenhorn Guides, an open-source bank of eBooks and videos offering free education in homesteading, gardening, and self-reliant living. “Education is a gift,” Gauger says, “and gifts are meant to be given.”
But Here We Grow didn’t stop at information.
They are preparing to send seed kits in 2026, free of charge, to people across the U.S., accompanied by calendars, layout plans, and step-by-step instructions to create “turnkey gardens.” These kits are designed not only to equip but to teach, bridging the growing divide between food access and food agency.
Over the next few years, they will be expanding a network of community gardens out from the Southeast like a spiderweb: installations at schools, churches, and senior living facilities. Places where people can come together as a community to grow healthy and safe food to eat.
They aren’t just stopping at self-sufficiency in food either. They have also been working in grassroots community-based disaster recovery. When Hurricane Helene devastated parts of western North Carolina, Here We Grow adopted a local Asheville, NC movement called Operation Shelter and together raised $450,000 for emergency housing, food, and clean-up efforts.
They provided Starlinks, tents, generators, chainsaws, and all manner of aid to those most severely affected by the storm. Eventually, they graduated to providing those in need with donated RVs and paying rent checks as the weather got colder.
Most recently, the charity partnered with the Excel College to aid them in the construction of a 150-person volunteer camp that will support the repair of over 300 homes heavily damaged by the destructive water that decimated the area. The projects are numerous. There is a collaboration to give a barber back his livelihood. An apartment was completely renovated for a local landlord who lost a valuable asset, and in turn, that apartment was provided to a local nursing student who had no family and no place to live. They are even building a brand-new home for one family who watched their entire property get washed away by a torrent of water.
Healing Through Dirt and Dignity
Gauger’s vision doesn’t end with soil and seedlings. The long-term plan includes developing care farms. These 40 to 50-acre homestead communities will blend ecological farming with therapeutic support.
These farms are envisioned as sanctuaries where veterans with PTSD, survivors of domestic violence, youth with special needs, and the elderly can engage in ecotherapy. There, they will enjoy the proven psychological benefit of working with the land. These centers will also offer EMDR therapy and group counseling, creating an intersection between mental health, food justice, and community repair.
“We’re not just trying to feed people,” he explains. “We’re trying to give them purpose beyond themselves. We’re giving them the opportunity to serve each other. We hope that through altruistic purpose, comes self-healing.”
A Community That Transcends Identity
What makes Gauger’s social media following so unique isn’t just its size; it’s also the diversity. Gauger’s online community (greenhorngrove), which can be found on all socials, has become a meeting place for “everyone from the corporate suit to the sustainable farmer.” The content resonates across class lines, geographies, and generations.
Gauger has seen firsthand how a conversation about tomatoes or tool tips can dissolve decades of division. “Common interests are more powerful than common enemies,” he says. “You see two people who wouldn’t agree on anything else suddenly giving each other advice on compost ratios. In that moment, they don’t care about politics or position. They only see another human being.”
This ability to build bridges, without posturing and without pandering, is one of the most quietly radical aspects of Gauger’s work. He doesn’t lean on outrage. He doesn’t bait for clicks. He plants. He teaches. He gives. His sincere belief is that the reason he has this platform is to serve others, and not himself.
The Face of a Different Kind of Influence
While many creators chase brand deals or virality, Gauger treats his platform as a gift, one intended for others. The end goal isn’t likes; it’s lives changed through the acts of a remarkable and unique charity.
From providing housing to empowering families with garden plots, from helping communities respond to natural disasters to educating people on growing their own food, Gauger has redefined what it means to be an “influencer.” And he’s done it without selling out, selling fear, or selling himself.
“Followers and likes don’t matter,” he insists, gently shaking his head. “I don’t care about any of that. If you ask my son what I do for a living, do you know what he says?” he pauses, his blue eyes fixed with purpose. “He says, ‘My Daddy helps people.’ That’s something that matters.”
Where the Work Grows Next
As of this writing, Here We Grow continues to broaden its reach, distributing educational materials, planning new community gardens, and supporting long-term recovery efforts in disaster-affected regions. Meanwhile, Gauger is preparing for the next phase of growth for the charity.
He remains active on social media, whether on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok. He shares stories, lessons, and updates from the same homestead where he arrived only four years ago as a complete beginner… a greenhorn.
What began as a personal pivot has grown into something much larger: a nonprofit, a free learning platform, and the seed of a sanctuary for the overlooked, the displaced, and anyone searching for a way to grow something meaningful.
In a time of noise and division, Here We Grow stands for something quietly radical: the belief that the best way to feed people’s souls is by teaching them to feed themselves.
Want to Help?
If you’d like to support this growing movement, visit Here We Grow’s website and click the Donate button. Every contribution helps plant the seeds of self-sufficiency, healing, and hope.
Spencer Hulse is the Editorial Director at Grit Daily. He is responsible for overseeing other editors and writers, day-to-day operations, and covering breaking news.
