Britain's biggest food bank charity is preparing to supply Christmas dinners to over 60,000 people, a third of them being children, to ensure they have a hearty meal on December 25.

The Trussell Trust wants to bring at least some Christmas cheer to families struggling to make ends meet in Britain. It will mean thousands of food hampers, crammed with traditional "good luck" crackers, puddings and extra food, and for many a traditional turkey.

With other charities also gearing up for the holiday, it will mean thousands of others being helped to ensure Christmas is not cancelled for the worst hit families.

Despite encouraging messages from the Conservative-led coalition government that things are getting better, the number of people forced to rely on food banks continues to rise.

New figures from the Trussell Trust reveal since April more than 500,000 have turned to food banks for help. In the whole of the previous year the figure was 350,000.

Trussell's national foodbank director Adrian Curtis said the figures for 2014 were expected to be even higher.

"We are concerned about the ever rising number of people referred to food banks because they have hit a crisis time in their lives," he said. "Without help from our food banks some people have told us they would be eating a meal of beans on toast on Christmas Day. We have even been told by some families that without our help they would have died."

Curtis's bleak outlook is echoed by the executive chairman of the Trussell Trust Chris Mould.