Winter hats and bulging backpacks are not your typical parade attire.

But this wasn’t really your typical parade.

Instead of marching bands, there were students marching cans.

Instead of costumes, they had condiments.

And so the first-, second-, third- and fourth-graders of Ordway Elementary made their annual trek to Helpline House.

They were excited as they marched down Madison Avenue; after all, they had a special delivery to make.

Zoë Hays, a second grader in Mary Lou Upton’s class, was loaded up with Jell-O. It’s her favorite, her grandmother said.

And Elsie Nelson carried “applesauce, a big jar, and soups.”

The boys in Ms. B’s — Jennifer Burlingame’s — class couldn’t wait to deposit their boxes of cake mix, cereal and Gatorade.

“People are hungry and people are starving,” explained one second-grader.

Gilbert Jacobsen, another second-grader, was delighted to help. “We’re going to give them food!” he exclaimed with a victory fist pump.

Ordway students and chaperones have been making the 1.6-mile roundtrip walk for more than 25 years.

Greg Sanman, a fifth-grade teacher at the time, was looking for a way to make food drives more visible, “more than just a box in the hallway,” he said.

The beauty of the walk, or “parade of condiments,” as the staff of Helpline calls it, is that Ordway students not only practice charitable giving, they also get to glimpse the results. After dumping their donations into boxes, they tour Helpline’s food bank, which is stocked and set-up like a grocery store.

“It brings awareness, not only to students and parents, but also to Helpline House,” Sanman explained.

At the end of the day, “Every student at Ordway knows where they can seek help if they need it,” he added. “They also know of a place where they can make donations, volunteer and help the community.”

Community efforts like the Ordway walk are key to Helpline House’s operation, said food bank manager Marilyn Gremse.

Close to 300 households show up every week for supplies and assistance (Helpline also provides counseling and advocacy services). The only requirement to “shop” is island residency; visitors sign an agreement that they are in need of food, but they don’t have to provide any income information.

Forty minutes later, the Ordway crowd is gone, and that’s when another crew takes over. Members of Liz Finin’s seventh- and eighth-grade class at the Commodore Options School get busy with the sorting. With mountains of contributions from hundreds of students, they have a lot of work to do.

The Helpline House food bank is open weekdays from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is closed on Wednesdays. For more information about donating or volunteering, visit www.helplinehouse.org.