Organizers of a 22-year-old program giving students living in homeless shelters new backpacks for the start of school say city budget cuts could force them to reduce supplies as the number of homeless children has ballooned.

Last year, the city’s Department of Education donated $250,000 in in-kind supplies to Volunteers of America-Greater New York, an anti-poverty nonprofit that uses the funding to leverage private donations and purchase backpacks and back-to-school supplies for children across the city’s shelters. Operation Backpack distributed backpacks to 19,000 students last year — still shy of the need as the city’s shelter population surged partly due to new migrant arrivals.

Funding for the program was cut from Mayor Eric Adams’ proposed budget this year, leaving the Volunteers of America-Greater New York worried that it won’t be able to meet the growing demand for school supplies.

“The concern this year is that if the DOE does not provide the same level of support as it did last year, then we’ll just be a little bit limited [in] what we’re able to do,” said Catherine Trapani, the organization’s assistant vice president of public policy.

City education officials said they were working with individual school districts to make sure schools and students have the supplies they need. “We are deeply committed to supporting our students in need, and we are proud of our school communities for continuously stepping up to provide supplies, clothing, food and other necessities,” DOE spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said in a statement. “We will continue to work with our community members and nonprofit partners to help expand access to these critical resources.”

But Trapani said Operation Backpack targets children at homeless shelters instead of waiting for them to enroll in school and communicate their needs to a teacher. She estimated there were about 30,000 students living in shelters, though that number could change by fall. The city comptroller found that the highest number of children in a decade were staying in shelters last year.

“My fear is that the schools won’t have enough information, resources and support to adequately plan,” Trapani said. “And then a child either will go without or will have to wait and have to make the request that to get what they need. If you do it the other way around, matching the child with the supplies instead of at the school, then the kid walks in day one and is ready.”

Last month, Adams rolled back more than $500 million in planned budget cuts to education programs that relied on expiring federal stimulus funds. The announcement came after the City Council and education advocates heavily pressured the administration to restore the proposed cuts, particularly for child care, which most New Yorkers cannot reasonably afford. The mayor’s restoration also included funding for shelter-based coordinators who help thousands of students in shelters navigate the school system.

Trapani said she was hopeful that the city would be able to find money to give kids new back-to-school supplies in August. “We never want a child living in temporary housing to have to feel different from their housed peers,” she said. “The goal is that every kid starts the year on equal footing. It creates a sense of stability and normalcy and takes the weight off of the parent who frankly has enough stress to worry about how they’re going to provide for their families when they’re living in shelter.”