Food bank manager Adam Raffell said referrals for food vouchers for desperate families at risk of going hungry surged by 63 per cent in the first six months of this year, compared to last year.

At the same time, the amount of food donated to the organisation has dropped, as ordinary people's stretched budgets meant they could no longer afford to donate so much food.

Mr Raffell said there was ‘absolutely a crisis’. He said he 'hoped' the food bank would continue to be able to supply hungry families who turned to it for help with at least the basic packages of 'core' foods prescribed by the Trussell Trust.

But he said that if donations did not pick up, the food bank may have to cut down on the 'extras' it offered.

And if there wasn't real help for struggling families to enable them to cope with the surging cost of living, there could be some 'really dire consequences' ahead, he said.

York Food bank manager Adam Raffell, left, with volunteer Anthony Penistone and Gavin Douglas of S Harrison

His warning came as a national newspaper, The Guardian, reported that 70 per cent of food banks across the country said they may need to turn people away or shrink the size of emergency rations this winter as demand surged and food donation levels dropped.

• This is how York Food Bank works

Mr Raffell said York Food Bank had started the year with a good supply of non-perishable foods, thanks to the generosity of York people.

"But those supplies are starting to run down now," he said. "And we haven't seen the worst. We are only at the beginning of this.

"There was a 63 per cent increase in referrals for food vouchers between January and July this year, compared to last year, and we had a busy July and August. All the signs are that (demand) is likely to increase further."

He said he could understand that ordinary people were finding it more difficult to be generous as budgets were stretched.

But he urged people to continue donating what they could - even just a tin of soup or canned vegetables with their weekly shop.

York Central's Labour MP Rachael Maskell, meanwhile, said the choices some people were facing were 'terrifying'.

Rachael Maskell MP (Image: Supplied)

She said she had constituents who had been preparing for winter by buying small gas fires to heat a single room and small stove rings to cook on. One constituent even chopped down a tree in their garden for firewood.

She urged those in York who could afford to continue to donate to the food bank to be generous.

And she had a message for the new Prime Minister, who will be announced on Monday but looks likely to be Liz Truss.

Ms Maskell said: "She has said she won't provide a universal package of help. I just hope that when she walks through the door of No 10 she realises her responsibility to people."