Karina Jimenez Cantu

Surplus food is everywhere. Dignity is not. Traffic fines are everywhere. Understanding them is not.

Two very different contexts. One underlying question: how might we make systems more human?

Every day across Ireland, community food workers move tonnes of surplus food from warehouses to tables. They are practical, creative, and under-resourced. They know hunger. They know waste. Too often, they are stretched too thin.

At the same time, over 275,000 traffic fines were issued in Ireland in 2024. That is one every two minutes. Most people who received a fine letter struggled to understand it. Eight pages of legal language. A ticking clock. Help existed, but finding it took extra work.

Both groups face the same problem. A system that assumes too much. A process that confuses them instead of offering clarity.

Food Cloud invited us to reimagine their educational offering. The result was the Catalyst Lab: a values-based, hands-on-learning programme for community food workers. It is hybrid, peer-led, and modular. You pick what you need – mapping your local food ecosystem, designing dignity-based models, or building operational confidence. Each module ends with a practical output: a map, a plan, or new skills.

I grounded my deliverables in one module: building operational confidence. People need help with the practicalities of working with food. I envision this as a space to sit down with FSAI guidance and talk about contacting your local Environmental Health Officer. Not as a fear. As a first act of care. A personalised action plan: temperature logs, supplier details, volunteer checklists, HACCP training providers. Not as red tape, but as dignity in practice.

Seven values sit underneath: Collaboration, Reciprocity, Equity, Inclusion, Dignity, Trauma-Informed Practice and Community.

The Courts Service invited us to redesign their Fixed Charge Notice. We asked people what they actually wanted to know. We ran card sorting exercises, removed what they did not need, and kept what mattered. The result was QR in your Mirror: a renamed and redesigned Traffic Fine Notice. Eight pages of legal jargon became four pages of plain English. We added a QR code that unlocks a personalised digital pathway (see Ben's Digital Quickpay Journey). For those who prefer not to pay online, we also highlighted analogue options.

I learned people are not the problem. Complicated systems are.

The Catalyst Lab trusts communities to lead each other. QR in your Mirror trusts people to understand a fine when it is written clearly. Both start with listening. Both end with dignity.

Two projects. One question: how might we make systems more human?