March Madness Food Drive Donates 1.5 Tons of Food to the Kamloops Food Bank

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Story provided by Chelsea Isenor, Director of Communications and Board Administration

Three elementary schools in the Kamloops-Thompson School District recently held a friendly competition to see who could collect the most food donations. From March 3–13, 2025, Robert L Clemitson (RLC), Marion Schilling, and Ralph Bell elementary schools competed in the March Madness Food Drive to help support the Kamloops Food Bank.

The March Madness Food Drive began four years ago at RLC, started by one of the school’s former students, Valleyview Secondary’s Griffin Seafoot. Griffin helped organize the event because his school was not able to do their traditional December food drive as the school was supporting local families affected by the 2021 wildfires. The idea was to support the Kamloops Food Bank at a time of the year when donations are lower and there are typically less large food drives.

The March Madness Food Drive has now continued as an annual tradition at RLC. Now in its fifth year, the RLC student and staff leadership team looked for a creative way to increase the success of the food drive by challenging both Ralph Bell and Marion Schilling elementary schools to a friendly competition, with the ultimate goal of providing greater support for the entire community and Kamloops Food Bank.

At the end of the two-week food drive, all donations were weighed by the Kamloops Food Bank to see which school was able to collect the most food by weight, per student. The school with the heaviest collection of food won the right to dress the opposing schools’ principals in their school colours on March 31, 2025 (as they greet students when they return from Spring Break).

While preparing their final boxes of food donations on March 14, 2025, students at each school shared that they were “feeling good and confident” about the competition and amount of food they collected, saying “I’m proud of it,” and “I’m pretty sure we’re going to win, there’s a lot of food there.” At Marion Schilling Elementary School, Kirsten Flinn, a Learning Assistant Teacher and one of the food drive organizers shared, “I’m feeling optimistic. We worked hard, we’re a small school, but we collected a lot of food… we are happy to support wearing their colours if it means the Food Bank get supported.”

Students and staff also expressed the importance of giving back and supporting their community. Students at RLC shared “I liked how we are helping out the community and helping people who need it,” and “it was fun to get involved, the completion is really fun but the most important part is helping the Food Bank.” RLC Principal Blake Bueman shared, “We want to be competitive with the other schools but we also want the students to understand that the real winner is the Food Bank.”

Between all three schools, over 1.5 tons of food was collected and donated to the Kamloops Food Bank in March. RLC collected 2,091 lbs which is an average of 5 lbs per student, Marion Schilling collected 814 lbs which is an average of 3.5 lbs per student, and Ralph Bell collected 438 lbs which is an average of 1.75 lbs per student.

The March Madness Food Drive is a wonderful example of how SD73 schools are living the District’s value commitment to Equity. By spreading a message of giving, the students and staff at these three schools are creating positive experiences and environments that provide accessible and empowering opportunities throughout their communities.