FOOD banks have been used more than a million times nationwide in the last year, including more than 90,000 in region, new figures have revealed.

The Trussell Trust - the only UK charity which operates food banks nationwide - said that between April 1 2014 and March 31 2015, 52,447 adults and 35,246 children in the region needed a food handout - a 19 per cent increase on the previous 12 months.

Last night the charity said the shocking figures did not tell the true story because many more desperate families are also using local charities and churches food banks.

Nationally, more than a million people received emergency food from the trust's food banks last year, compared to 900,000 in 2013-14. The Trussell Trust added these are not all unique users. 

In the North-East, 87,600 people received emergency food supplies - the equivalent of giving three days’ food to almost the entire population of Hartlepool.

In North Yorkshire 6,918 people sought help during the same period.

Referrals to food banks due to sickness, homelessness, delayed wages and unemployment have increased slightly.

The charity reported that the most significant factors in driving demand were low income, administrative delays in paying social security benefits, benefits sanctions and debt.

Peter McClellan, director of County Durham Food Bank, which runs 28 food banks in the county, said: "Overall we are feeding two per cent more people than last year.

“The reasons people are coming to us haven’t changed significantly at all. For a lot of people it is a benefits issue of some sort – 55 to 60 per cent of people who come to us.”

He added: “There are still far too many people needing access to food banks. Too much of that is down to clunky or ineffective systems in handling benefits and in handling people frankly, which results in the most vulnerable losing out.”

Malcolm Fallow, chief executive of the East Durham Trust, which operates independently of the Trussell Trust, said the latest figures mirrored what the Peterlee-based charity was experiencing.

He said: “In the last 12 months we have distributed almost 2,500 food parcels, which is a significant increase on the previous 12 months. Figures that have been published nationally come as no surprise to us.

“It is clear to us that areas significant disadvantage, such as east Durham, are proof regardless of what politicians may tell us, the poorer are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer.

“It is quite obvious to us that significant numbers of people are finding it difficult to put bread on the table - literally.”

Margaret Nealis of Consett Food4U said: “The latest statistics are shocking.We are supposed to be a First World country. What is going on?

“We need to hope that that whatever happens in the election the next Government does something to address it.”

In the last year Consett food bank fed 908 adults and 600 children, while the Stanley food bank fed 520 adults and 239 children.

Trussell Trust UK food bank director Adrian Curtis said: “Despite welcome signs of economic recovery, hunger continues to affect significant numbers of men, women and children in the UK today.

“It’s difficult to be sure of the full extent of the problem as Trussell Trust figures don’t include people who are helped by other food charities or those who feel too ashamed to seek help.

"Trussell Trust food banks are increasingly hosting additional services like debt counselling and welfare advice at our foodbanks, which is helping more people out of crisis. The Trussell Trust's latest figures highlight how vital it is that we all work to prevent and relieve hunger in the UK."

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "This should make all of us ashamed, particularly those who claim we have a strong economy and everyone is sharing in the recovery.

"It tells us that the Government has done grave damage to the welfare safety net."

Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey said: "The UK is the sixth richest country on the planet so something has gone grotesquely wrong when so many people, in and out of work, have to turn to charity to feed their children.

"One million in food need in 2015 is a scandal of epic dimensions. It is no longer enough to say that we need to make hunger history - we need to make the government that supercharged this need history once and for all."