How can states & localities involve the poor directly in creating poverty elimination targets?

There's been talk of setting up stores where surplus food from supermarkets could be distributed. That's a good idea anyway, and why not involve local volunteers in creating such resources? You could go a step further and get them preparing meals, so you then have a community cafe. I saw an interesting model for this in Australia, where there were cafes set up to give refugees skills in food preparation, and diners would pay whatever amount they wanted for the food. It was an effective project and offers the potential of helping to eliminate poverty by making good use of foods that supermarkets don't want, and making it available for a nominal fee to people in local communities, where it's cooked by people who are developing kitchen and table waiting skills that could help them find work to escape the poverty trap they're in.