A church in London, Our Lady of Fatima Church, opens its doors once a week to anyone needing a warm space and possibly a warm meal so that families do not have to heat their homes between school hours and bedtime when heating costs are at an all-time high.

“It’s great to know there’s a place where, if you need it, you can get warm, eat a hot meal, and let the kids play,” said Emma Harper, whose heating bill has tripled this year, like many others in Britain. The mother of two young children has accumulated debts of over £1,200.

“These homes are extremely frigid,” she said. “There is a terrible draft. The exterior walls of my son’s bedroom are completely covered in thick, black, damp mold.” The church’s “warm bank” is part of a program in which local councils, charities, and businesses assist by opening their doors to libraries, bakeries, theaters, and opera houses.

There are nearly 4,000 “warm banks” in the UK, aiding in response to a severe crisis that countless households will have to choose between heating and eating today.

Millions of people in one of the world’s ten wealthiest nations struggle to maintain a comfortable temperature has been viewed as both ingenious and horrifying. The average annual energy bill has increased by 96% this year to approximately £3,000. The rise in prices has coincided with temperatures 35 to 40 degrees below average and has hovered below freezing for days.

Britain has been hit particularly hard by double-digit inflation, 10.5% in December in the UK

Father Richard Nesbitt hosts the “warm bank” at Our Lady of Fatima Church, which he describes as a “response to the cost-of-living crisis.” “However, we have done everything in our power to ensure that it does not feel like a charity project,” he explained. Richard and his volunteers do everything possible to eliminate the stigma associated with “heating handouts.” “I mean, the warmth you feel when you enter this room has nothing to do with the central heating,” he said. “It’s about the friendliness of the greeting. It’s the affection and cooking, the enjoyment and games.”