A contest brainstormed over dinner by Sérgio and Marli Azevedo in the Seventh-day Adventist couple’s home almost 14 years ago now regularly generates thousands of tons of food across the country every December.

Called Christmas Mutirão—Sharing Hope, the initiative involves teams in local churches competing in three areas: writing and performing a brief Christmas pageant, choosing a service project in the local community and collecting food for local ADRA food banks, Azevedo explains. “Mutirão” is a Portuguese word used to describe a collective service project. 

The church’s television network, HopeTV, will broadcast this year’s Christmas Mutirão program December 15 from the Botafogo Adventist Church with Adventist world church president, Jan Paulsen, delivering the keynote address. A number of prominent national government, business, entertainment and sports figures, along with church leaders, are listed among the event’s judges. The panel will award each team points based on their respective plays, service projects and food tallies, with extra points given for celebrity appearances.

“All those who can collaborate and want to help, please do, because Christmas Mutirão is an extraordinary effort,” says Edson Arantes do Nascimento, the Brazilian soccer legend known as “Pelé” and a former judge of the event.

The Azevedos, who originally wanted to help stock the Adventist Development and Relief Agency’s (ADRA) empty food shelves, cooked up a competition that they hoped would boost the half a ton of food their Rio de Janeiro-based congregation typically collected for holiday food baskets. The contest yielded 54 tons of food the first year and has since benefited 3.7 million people in the country.

“It’s crazy how surprised the winning team is. All they get is a few slices of pizza and some juice,” says Azevedo, who works as a media and marketing consultant and still oversees the contest. “Obviously, that is not the motivation. The motivation is Jesus, and to be a better Christian, to do something for someone who needs help.

“For us, the reward is seeing the smiles of these families and children when we give them the food,” says Benivaldo Ramos, a team leader at the Botafogo Adventist Church. “For some families, it may be the only quality food they have all year. Our reward is giving them a Christmas without hunger.”

This year, the Adventist Church’s South American region focused on encouraging additional churches in Brazil to participate in the Christmas Mutirão. More than 1,500 churches and Adventist schools in Brazil joined the effort with an estimated 120,000 volunteers from 16 Brazilian states, church officials there report.

“The people in Brazil want to work for Christ, all you need to do is give them responsibilities,” says Azevedo. “I tell these pastors, ‘Just let the people do the work. All you need to do is say, yes, I will host this.’”

The event regularly receives significant national media coverage, Azevedo reports. Two prominent media companies, Globo and Bandeirantes, are sponsoring and promoting this year’s event. 

Azevedo adds that about 70 percent of the food and monetary donations come from Brazilians not affiliated with the Adventist Church. “This project is such a good way to work together with people who are not church members,” he says. “It cannot happen without everyone in Brazil working together.”