BOARDMAN — If you traveled one mile for every package of soup and hot cereal that was assembled then distributed, you would find yourself more than halfway to the moon.

“We’re trying to do easy-to-package items that are easy for families to make,” Cassandra Valentini, Direction Home of Eastern Ohio’s chief community development and public relations director, said.

Valentini was referring to shelf-stable packets of apple-cinnamon oatmeal and vegetable rice soup that will be distributed to area agencies such as Gleaners Food Bank, the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership, Heart Reach Neighborhood Ministries and United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. The items will then be supplied to many area senior citizens and families who are facing food insecurities and other struggles, Valentini noted.

An estimated 128,000 simple-to-prepare, high-nutrition packages of both meals were assembled, courtesy of more than 300 volunteers who took part in a Pack the Valley event Tuesday morning and afternoon at the United Way Volunteer Resource Center, 8133 Market St.

The seven-hour massive gathering also was a collaboration between Direction Home of Eastern Ohio, United Way, Meals of Hope and other community partners.

The center resembled a sea of blue as hundreds of volunteers of all ages wore blue sweatshirts and busily mixed the ingredients and packaged the items. Among the teams of workers were Olivia Lesky, Reese McNee and Gia Guerrieri, all South Range High School seniors and National Honor Society members.

“We do stuff like this all the time,” Lesky said, adding that community-service projects are a major thrust behind the students’ NHS chapter.

Given her track record, Tuesday’s event was par for the course for Lesky, because her volunteer efforts also have included planting trees at a Canfield wildlife preserve and giving her time at the Silver Lining Cancer Fund, where she manages its social media page and organizes clothing for those with the disease.

In addition, Lesky and the other students have worked on behalf of United Way’s Saturday of Caring, in which volunteers meet the third Saturday of each month to unload grocery trucks, then pack bags of nonperishable and fresh food to be distributed to several hundred homes across the Valley.

“We’re all in the same community,” Lesky said.

“The timing of this is very appropriate. The holidays are coming and food benefits for many are in jeopardy,” Becky Wall, Dearing Compressor & Pump Co.’s chief executive officer, said, referring to SNAP benefits for many ending Saturday because of the federal government shutdown. “We believe this community is very giving.”

At one point Tuesday, Wall and several Dearing employees teamed up to assemble and mix dehydrated carrots, rice, chicken broth, peas and corn for the soup packages.

After a lunch break, other volunteers gathered around large tables to assemble the apple-cinnamon oatmeal packets.

“It’s amazing to see all of these people giving up their time to put together meals for people in need. It’s heartwarming and amazing,” Jen Markewicz of Columbus said.

For her part, Markewicz, who’s with Meals of Hope, teamed up with her husband, Jeremy Markewicz, to ready soup packages for distribution. Meals of Hope has a warehouse in Dayton that prepares food items to be shipped to sites across the state, she noted.

Tuesday’s Pack the Valley event was timely also because older adults represent the fastest growing population to visit food banks, largely because many of them are on fixed incomes. In addition, Pack the Valley can be helpful to individuals who are unable to get to area food banks because of poor health or lack of transportation, Valentini said, adding that the average Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit for an older person is about $25 per month.

Also, Pack the Valley aligns with United Way’s mission of assisting those who are vulnerable and displaying compassion, empathy and hope to them while leaving positive footprints in the Valley, Bob Hannon, UW’s president, said.

“This has exceeded every expectation,” he said about Tuesday’s event.

Hannon stressed that any nonprofit agency or entity is “more than welcome” to use the volunteer resource center. Those have included Catholic Charities Regional Agency and the American Red Cross, he said.

“This is why we have this facility,” Hannon added.