Utcha Sawyers

Utcha Sawyers has been awarded and recognized by Toronto Foundation as one of Toronto’s Vital People, she is currently the Executive Director at the BGC East Scarborough (BGCES) & MAAT Youth Innovation & Cultural Centre (MYICC). Her desire and commitment to increasing equitable access to advancement opportunities focuses on those most marginalized and underserved, with a passion that stems from her devotion to increasing the visibility and addressing the issues of social inequities, specifically within racialized, and lower-income communities.

As a leading Canadian advocate for food justice, food democracy, and cultural humility towards BIPOC children, youth, and families both locally and internationally, Utcha has most recently lead the development a series of localized and sustainable community food access initiatives to enhance food security development across East Scarborough. The new Eatable Classroom at the BGCES is a fusion of a commercial grade kitchen and a food literacy learning center animated to support and improve the local food IQ and increase access to food skill training for local children & youth facing food insecurity. The Eatable Classroom at BGCES prepared over 12,460lbs in 2020 of prepared meals through its Harvest Kitchen & Emergency Food Access programs, delivered and shared across East Toronto weekly.

During her time with BGCES Utcha has expanded Childcare & Early Learning services to include infant care, and culturally focused early learning center with food literacy and access goals for all programs and services. In the fall of 2019 she also founded the MAAT Youth Innovation & Culture Centre (MYICC) Toronto’s first youth dedicated cultural center that prioritizes Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) youth Mentorship, Arts, Academics, and Technology access, MYICC also serves as an incubation space for Youth led food innovation.

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