Why are food banks necessary?

I read yesterday’s reports from the Trussell trust about numbers using food banks exceeding 1 million in the last financial year. I wanted to know more about how it worked so I could write something on here about how I feel about it and what the numbers really mean, so I spoke to a few people who work with the needy and refer to food banks; charity worker, GP, social worker, health visitor; then Jack Monroe wrote this in the Guardian and it became a bit clearer.
“Those of us referred to food banks are the lucky ones with a good doctor or health visitor who knows us well enough to recognise that something has gone seriously wrong. Consider those who don’t have those relationships, or services in their communities; those who don’t get a referral or a voucher because nobody recognises that they need to eat.”
The numbers don’t matter, the fact that that they have to be there, that ordinary people need them at all, is abhorrent.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/22/crisis-what-crisis-politicians-ignore-food-banks

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