Honey Creek Elementary School students unload a box of children's books to be put in backpacks along with food as part of the Feed the Children program.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

A shipment of several hundred backpacks, school supplies and non-perishable food came into Washtenaw County Thursday to be distributed to southeastern Michigan students who are homeless or living in temporary housing.

A total of 900 backpacks, distributed through the Education Project based at the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, are going to families in Washtenaw County and across the region. The project is meant to help homeless youth in the county stay in school and succeed.

The shipment of school supplies and food for children is among about 120,000 backpacks being delivered to kids this year through Feed The Children's Homeless Education Literacy Program, said Rebecca Gass, a spokeswoman for Feed The Children.

On Thursday afternoon, about 15 fourth- and fifth-grade students at Honey Creek Community School came to move the supplies from large pallets and into waiting cars for distribution.

The supplies are among many basic resources a child who is homeless or in a transitional housing situation may not have for many reasons, said Peri Stone-Palmquist, Education Project program manager.

Honey Creek Elementary School students Wilson Noll, 10, left, and Sydney Schuster, 11, team up to carry a box of food to a waiting car as part of the Feed the Children program.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

For example, some families are fleeing domestic violence and have had to leave their belongings behind or may be searching for housing due to a fire. A child may be feeling insecure about his or her living situation already, without having to deal with looking different without a usual backpack or because a strap breaks on an old or cheaply made bag, she said.

Stone-Palmquist contacted Feed The Children about its backpack program in the fall. The program couldn't provide any additional backpacks at the time, but was able to put the project on a list for further consideration.

"This may not be the time when people typically think about school supplies," Stone-Palmquist said. "But there is need year round, and it's really central to our mission."

The number of kids who need the services of the Education Project has been up 50 percent this year over last, Stone-Palmquist said

While the project held a successful school supplies drive last year, Stone-P almquist doesn't like seeing how empty the shelves of supplies are becoming. More than 450 students are living in homeless and temporary situations.

Significantly more families have also been requesting help in Wayne County.

"It's a new group of people who've never had to look for help before who are needing to ask for services," said Julie Davis from the Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency.

Davis was one representative who came to pick up a shipment of about 300 food packs and 300 backpacks for students in the Wayne County homeless education program. Need for different kinds of basic resources is up around the region, she said.

"It's one additional expenses parents of homeless children struggle with," Davis said. "They've got so many other things they have to worry about," she said.

Tina Reed covers health and the environment for AnnArbor.com. You can reach her at tinareed@annarbor.com, call her at 734-623-2535 or find her on Twitter @TreedinAA.