Darcy Higgins

A Young Alumni Award nominee:


Darcy Higgins
Founder and Executive Director of Food Forward Advocacy Alliance, Darcy Higgins developed an organization advocating for sustainable food and food access policy in Toronto. Higgins led Food Forward for five years and connects the organization to hundreds of people, organizations and businesses uniting to mobilize the food movement. Higgins is currently transitioning the structure of Food Forward to ensure a sustainable and effective advocacy group with decentralized leadership.


More recently Higgins co-created Building Roots, a firm working to develop places to grow, cook, share and buy food through the development of new markets, urban agriculture, kitchens, stores and food hubs in new and revitalized housing. Higgins founded Food Forward after other policy and environmental advocacy work with Environmental Defense and the Ontario Clean Air Alliance. He was a Policy Advisor with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario where he brought new discussions in food policy and diversity, and the director of policy and communications for the Green Party of Ontario.

Higgins graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2007 with a BES in Environment and Resource Studies. As a student, Higgins volunteered with the UW Sustainability Project and the Federation of Students and continues to connect with the current students involved in these projects. Higgins visited Waterloo and spoke with alumni colleagues about career options and his work with Food Forward after graduation. He remains connected to professors and staff and is a member of the editorial board of Alternatives Journal. Waterloo’s director of food services recently invited Higgins to speak on sustainable food issues to the Canadian College and University Food Service Association

Higgins is most proud of areas where he is working to push the envelope, including bridging the environmental movement's understanding of food and agriculture possibilities, as well as the necessary role of the food movement in social justice, equity, and racism.