More than a million emergency food parcels are handed out for the second year running - including 415,000 to childrenFood bank usage has hit record levels - with 1.1 million emergency parcels given out by a leading charity in the last year.
The Trussell Trust handed over 1,109,309 three-day parcels during 2015-16 - up 2% on the previous year.
More than 415,000 of the parcels went to children.
Estimates suggest more than 500,000 people used one of the trust's 424 food banks.
The trust said a million emergency food supplies a year must not become the "new normal".
Chief executive David McAuley said: "Today's figures on national food bank use prove that the numbers of people hitting a crisis where they cannot afford to buy food are still far too high.
"One million three-day food supplies given out by our food banks every year is one million too many."
Almost half of food banks said benefit sanctions were responsible for increased visits.
Low wages, high living costs and insecure work contracts were also to blame, according to the trust.
Shadow environment, food and rural affairs secretary Kerry McCarthy called the findings a "national scandal".
But a Government spokesman said: "Reasons for food bank use are complex so it is misleading to link them to any one thing.
"This Government is determined to move to a higher-wage society, introducing the new National Living Wage that will benefit over one million workers directly this year, and we're also spending £80bn on working-age benefits to ensure a strong safety net for those who need it most.
"The vast majority of benefits are processed on time and the number of sanctions have actually gone down."
More than 40,000 volunteers helped at food banks in the past year, with the public donating more than 10,500 tonnes of food.