By Rabbi Yosef Shemtov: Midrash says one time Eliezer the slave of Avraham met Shem son of Noah long after the flood and asked him about their one-year journey on the ark with all the animals. Shem answered that the trip was very difficult and they didn’t have a moment to relax. They had to feed the animals around the clock and every animal had its own diet and time to eat. They were like 24 hour workers in a zoo.
We can ask this question: why did Noah and his family who were righteous have to spend one year on the ship feeding animals? Why couldn’t the Almighty keep them on a small island for one year and let them be comfortable?
The answer is this trip was a training course for Noah and his family to learn how to be kind and think about others. Noah never prayed for the people to be saved. He didn’t even go out of his comfort zone to rebuke people for their wrongdoing. Only if people asked why he was building a ship, he would tell them HaShem wants to destroy the world because everyone is corrupt.
HaShem wanted to teach Noah a lesson, the importance of caring about others, so he had to go through feeding the animals. We also should have in our minds to always care and think about others.