The Green party will field more candidates than ever in Thursday's local elections, with more than 900 people standing – ensuring that nearly all of the county council constituencies voting have a Green candidate on their ballots.

The party is hoping to capitalise on disaffection with the main three political parties, much as Ukip is.

The Greens are pinning their hopes on a highly localised style of campaigning, with candidates loudly opposing plans for shale gas fracking, incinerators, landfill sites and roads.

Natalie Bennett, leader of the party, told the Guardian the campaign would be a test of localism. "In some areas, it's about 20mph zones near schools, hospitals, parks or play areas," she said. "In other areas, it's about planning protections or development of green spaces."

The Greens have been associated at a national level (the party has one MP, Caroline Lucas of Brighton Pavilion) with issues such as climate change, pollution and opposition to nuclear power.

Its members see the key to local elections as a focus on communities, particularly those that feel alienated from the Westminster bubble. But the party has been campaigning on certain national issues – such as for a living wage, higher than the minimum wage in most areas.

Her message for those who thought the Green party was only about environmental issues, is that localism is about making the whole community sustainable.

"Equality and the environment go hand in hand," Bennett said. "People have to have a sustainable life – a sustainable job, security – so they can think about the bigger issues. It's about people having jobs they can build a life around," she said. That means local artisans selling in local shops, protected from competition from multinationals and supermarkets by a deliberate emphasis on creating the conditions where small businesses can flourish.

Bennett, a former Guardian journalist, has made a point of visiting food banks in the areas where she has been campaigning.

She has been stunned by the increasing number of the banks, and by reports that demand for their services is increasingly dramatically. "It is truly terrifying, how much they are planning to have to grow next year," she said.

The scandals involving Ukip candidates – with one accused on Tuesday of giving a Nazi salute in a photograph and others accused of racist, homophobic and xenophobic expressions that Nigel Farage insists are not in line with the party's views – are far away from the Green party, according to Bennett. "Ukip is nasty, and toxic," she said. "We trust our local parties."

Although the Green party has probably even less financial resources at its disposal than Ukip, which has said it lacks the money to vet all its candidates thoroughly, Bennett is confident that no one standing in elections for the Green party will be found lacking.

"These are people who come from the local community, they are known to the local community, they have usually been active for years," she said.

"They are local people, teaching in local schools, NHS workers, people who are embedded in the societies they are standing for. We have great confidence in the quality of our candidates."

For all the grand plans, however, the Green party's aims are still modest. Bennett refuses to be drawn on how many council seats the party can hope to gain, saying only it should be "approaching double figures". For a party with 138 councillors already in principal authorities, that seems a small ambition.