SEQUIM — Yes, this time of year can feel dreary. The holidays are done and the sky is gray.

But last Friday morning, the students at Sequim Middle School banished that wintry feeling by stuffing a big yellow bus with 2.2 tons of peanut butter, flour, chili and Cheerios.

It was the school’s annual drive to accumulate donations for the Sequim Food Bank, whose cupboards grow bare in February.

After two weeks of collecting food, student-body officers and their adviser, Caity Karapostoles, got a workout unloading it all at the pantry at 144 W. Alder St.

“This isn’t good to do before lunch,” joked Lorah Steichen, 14.

She and her schoolmates admitted to growing hungry as they carried boxes of oatmeal into the food bank.

The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade classes compete with one another to be the group that hauls in the most donations, Karapostoles said.

“This is a great motivator for kids,’ she added, when winter seems to be dragging on.

The middle school has sponsored the drive every February for at least a decade.

Under Friday’s gloomy sky, the 10 class officers spent 90 minutes emptying the bus, working alongside food bank executive director Nina Fatherson and Stephen Rosales, the daily volunteer who was named Sequim Citizen of the Year last Tuesday.

“I think the students at Sequim Middle School are amazing in their desire to give back,” Karapostoles said.

“They just need the opportunity to do so.”