Students from three Kamloops elementary schools have taken up the challenge of seeing who can haul in the most for the Kamloops Food Bank.

From March 3 to 13, Robert L Clemitson, Marion Schilling and Ralph Bell elementary schools collected donations during the annual March Madness Food Drive.

The school that collects the most food by weight, per student, will win the right to dress the principals of the opposing schools in their colours at the end of the month, and the students said they’ve been working hard.

“There were announcements every day for about two weeks, our principal put out emails to all the families in the school and they brought a lot of food,” said grade 7 Marion Schilling student Sterling Therrien.

“We gave boxes to every single class to put donations in, and every day people would bring more and more food,” added grade 7 student Lux Hluschyk.

Students from all three schools said they were pleased with what they managed to collect and were feeling optimistic heading into the weigh in.

The drive was started four years ago at RLC, and it’s the first time the challenge has been levied against Ralph Bell and Marion Schilling.

Ralph Bell elementary principal Tiffany Hawkins said the school usually does a food drive in December, but its the first time it has participated in the March drive.

“I hope it will be a tradition that we carry on for a while,” she said.

Marion Schilling learning assistance teacher and food drive organizer Kirsten Flinn said the goal was to make sure the food bank has enough resources.

“It's a great opportunity for the kids in the schools to see that there are folks out there with needs. A lot of these kids use the food bank as well,” Finn said.

Blake Buemann, RLC principal, said the friendly competition would ultimately benefit the food bank.

“We know that by opening it up to more schools and by opening up to a friendly competition, we will ultimately make sure that the food bank is the winner for sure,” he said.

“I trust my community, I know they've done all they can so I hope to be wearing the gold or black on March 31.”

The Kamloops Food Bank collected the donations last Friday and the results are expected to be announced later this month.