The number of people using food banks at Christmas in the UK has tripled compared to last year, according to a charity which runs 400 across the country.
Over the two weeks leading up to Christmas Day, the Trussell Trust estimates that its food banks have fed 60,000 people, of which one third were children.
During the same period last year, it fed 20,000 people.
Food banks have shot up the political agenda after a parliamentary debate highlighted the huge rise in demand for their services, and exposed the deep political divisions on the issue.
Opposition Labour MP Frank Field, chairman of the all party parliamentary group on hunger, food and poverty, said the House of Commons debate was "like a football match" and that "there were no meetings of minds".
Field has repeatedly called on Prime Minister David Cameron to launch an inquiry into the rising demand for food banks.
The MP for Birkenhead said: "Food banks are an indicator of just how grim it is at the bottom.
"Here we are fumbling around trying to say what the problem is. We need to raise our game about the solution.
"We are in unchartered territory. I don't think there is any quick fix."
Since April, more than half a million people have used Trussell Trust food banks, which is triple the number for the same period last year.
Based on these figures, the charity estimates that about three times as many people will have used their services over the Christmas period too.
