Two rooms at YMCA’s Camp Arrowhead were filled with a cacophony of sounds on Saturday.

More than 100 teens and adult leaders chatted or sang to music as pasta and rice clattered down funnels and filled plastic bags. Packing tape ripped and cardboard boxes folded across the room as bags of uncooked food were packaged.

By the end of the day, the Youth Encounter attendees not only had packaged 30,000 meals but also had lunch, participated in fun and games at the camp and watched the inspirational movie “Woodlawn.”

It was the second year for the event, said Nancy Greene, associational administrator and disaster relief coordinator for the Blackwater Baptist Association. The association includes two dozen churches in Suffolk, Franklin, and Isle of Wight and Southampton counties.

Many of those who participated were from the association’s churches, but some students from the area attended as well.

“I like helping and giving back to the community,” said Bryona Williams, a Forest Glen Middle School student. “I like seeing people smile.”

Suffolk public high school students at the event were able to collect volunteer service hours required for their graduation.

“I just came out to help the community,” said Alisha Ralph, a Lakeland High School student at the same station as Bryona.

The bags of food will be distributed to elementary schools across the association’s service area. The schools will then provide them to children whose families are in need of the extra assistance.

Two different meals were packaged on Saturday. Students in one room packaged a fortified macaroni and cheese meal, while the others packaged rice, soy flour, dried vegetables and a protein and spice mixture. Each bag provides about six servings.

“It’s actually a lot of food, and it’s super healthy,” said Tim Lipp, youth pastor at Smithfield Baptist Church, who has sampled the food. “We want to do something to give back to not just our community but the communities around us.”

He said the food received from the event helps feed the Isle of Wight recipients for about six months.

Greene said the project helps the young people get more involved in their community and put their faith into action.

“We want them to accept God’s call to missions, to take care of their brothers and sisters,” Greene said.

It seems they got the message: “It just feels like the right thing to do and helps somebody else,” said Brooks Holland.

Lipp said the Obici Healthcare Foundation, Suffolk Partnership for a Healthy Community and Virginia Baptist Foundation had supported the project.