Welfare cuts and savage sanctions have almost quadrupled the crowds at foodbanks, with charities describing a "perfect storm" for nearly a million people in Scotland.

Backbenchers on Holyrood's welfare reform committee were left reeling yesterday after foodbank network the Trussell Trust reported nearly four times the number of families coming to it for help on the year before.

The trust told the MSPs that 56,052 people had used one of its food banks in Scotland in the 11 months to February - a rise of nearly 300 per cent on the 14,318 people who sought food parcels in 2012.

And Glasgow-based charity Loaves & Fishes chair Denis Curran told MSPs that he routinely heard of parents who had trekked "three or four miles with children" to collect food parcels from his volunteers - too destitute to drive or even take public transport.

"There seems to be a fallacy out there that these services are misused, that they're layabouts - these people are afraid," he said.

"People are asking if they can get food they don't have to cook because they've got no money for the power. The amount of people who come to us who've been sanctioned is unbelievable.

"If you've got no money for this week and no money for the next week, how are you going to feed yourself?

"We had a woman come in who hadn't eaten in a week because she'd been feeding her children, her bairns.

"But you don't hear about that," he said.

The testimony came as a coalition of charities across Scotland warned of a "perfect storm" of low wages, rising costs and attacks on the welfare state, with the Scotland's Outlook campaign estimating that more than 870,000 people in the country now live below the poverty line.

Shelter Scotland director Graeme Brown said the crisis was compounded still further by a 155,000-strong waiting list for council housing and nearly 40,000 applications for assistance filed by homeless people last year.

"People across Scotland are being battered by welfare reforms, stagnant wages, rising utility bills, higher living costs and job insecurity.

"For many, the safety and security of home is under threat like never before. It's a perfect storm on our doorstep," he said.