Even before this week’s £700-a-year rise in energy costs for British households, Leigh Sopaj, 36, was struggling to pay the bills.

At the start of each week, Sopaj loads £30 on her prepaid electricity meter, but she has less and less credit. She said: “I had £20 left in the middle of the week, but now it’s down to £11. The bills are getting harder and harder to pay.”

Sopaje, a suburb of Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, is one of the 20% poorest in the UK and one of 6.3 million households facing ‘fuel stress’ according to Think Tank Resolution Foundation – The number of homes affected tripled overnight.

With the UK’s energy price cap expected to rise by another £600-£800 in October, coupled with a rise in council tax, inflation approaching 8% and a 50p rise in petrol prices since January, households are facing sharpest Living standards have fallen since records began in 1956.

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As a result, local authorities and voluntary organisations are finding innovative ways to address the cost of living crisis, which will lure families who would not normally use emergency services such as food banks.

One such scheme is the Lillington Community Food Pantry in Warwickshire, West Midlands, England. “Subscribers” pay £5 to pick food from the supermarket’s leftovers from the shelves. The aim is to help household heads like Sopaj expand their rapidly eroding budgets.

The food pantry, run by charity Feed the Hungry on behalf of Warwickshire Council, is consciously different from traditional food banks, which simply hand over pre-packaged food bags to recipients.

It aims to provide a “shopping experience” and a range of other preventive services, from debt counselling to health advice and cooking classes, which the council hopes will help stabilize families teetering on the edge of poverty.

“For a lot of people, it’s been a slow decline, a downward spiral, so what we’re trying to do is catch them before they bottom out,” said Heather Timms, a conservative member of the committee, which has Invested almost £350,000 in storage.

Combining government seed funding with philanthropic knowledge and volunteer work, the scheme is seen as a model of how local governments can use “community power” to support already stretched services.

Pantry users can seek expert advice from on-site groups such as Citizens Advice, whose representative Paul Carter is available for on-site consultations.

“Simple things like budget planning tips for predictable financial events like birthdays and Christmas — rather than promising your kids something you can’t afford — can help people live within their means,” he said.

The idea of ??expanding community engagement in the delivery of public services is backed by central government and incorporated by upgrade secretary Michael Gove white paper In February, the government drew up a prospectus to reduce inequality across the UK.

The document promises to experiment with a “community compact”, in which councils, public bodies and local groups enter into formal agreements to “empower communities to shape the regeneration of their areas and improve public services”.

Critics of the government, including opposition Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner, said the plans were no substitute for proper funding of local government services, which have seen their budgets slashed by 30 per cent over the past decade.

At a recent conference on community empowerment, Rainer, while welcoming the concept, accused the government of failing to really strengthen communities, preferring instead “a little money here, a small project there”.

But promoters of grassroots engagement argue that the scale of the cost of living crisis, combined with the resurgence of volunteering during the Covid-19 pandemic, creates an opportunity to reassess the role of communities in service delivery.

Adam Lent, chief executive of New Local, a think tank and local government network, said the policy debate had shifted away from the “big society” idea of ??former prime minister and Conservative leader David Cameron.

“Cameron’s ‘big society’ idea is that the state takes a step back and the voluntary sector strengthens. It’s a different concept: it says the state is an important catalyst for change and community power,” he said.

For example, New Local cites Wigan deal Greater Manchester’s Wigan Council has mobilised volunteers and schools to improve local parks and recycling, work for libraries and build friendship groups.

Conservative MP Danny Kruger was asked by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to report on how to capitalise on the spirit of volunteerism inspired by the pandemic, arguing that necessity will prove to be the mother of invention.

“We now have more ‘burning platforms’ than we did in the ‘big society’ era,” he said. “There is a growing recognition that we need a stronger society because the country’s resources are simply not sufficient to meet demand.”

Back in Lillington, the goal is that the seed money invested in the pantry will replicate the success of a similar program in neighboring Coventry, which has more than 130 participating families.

Charles Barlow, head of six ‘community power’ projects at Warwickshire County Council, believes demand will increase as cost pressures on households increase, including an orchard and a project to help older people stay on their own. A longer plan at home.

“If it works and we get the community buyout we’re looking for, hopefully the project will be self-sustaining,” Barlow said.

Faye Abbott, who runs the Lillington Food Pantry, said the hope was to create a hub where people could come together in difficult times to offer cooking classes and activities for kids who had few snacks in their lives.

In the second week of opening, she recalls a young boy running in and immediately picking up a packet of Angel Delight Pudding Mix.

“It’s a small thing, but obviously very important to him,” she said. “It’s not just about helping people get means-tested benefits. There are people in jobs who still can’t pay their bills, and that’s a growing group.”

For Sopay, who is unable to take swimming lessons for her two-year-old son Hudson, the pantry will allow her to buy around £30 worth of food for a £5 fee. This will help her get through the weekend when her teenage children come to stay. “They just eat too much,” she said. “The pantry will help me get through this.”