For more than a year, young people in the interior of Bahia, Brazil, have served poor families and houseless people through the Sopão Solidário (Solidarity Soup) project. At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, many people became unemployed and started to eat irregularly or had no way to eat at all. For those without houses, the reality was worse and they became even more vulnerable. 

In the city of Itabela, in the south of Bahia, Marcos Gomes, a pastor, says that he was uncomfortable with the situation of three neighborhoods that are part of his district: Dapezão, Pereirão, and Invasão. Based on this reality, he and other young people took the initiative to help the community. 

“We have been in a campaign for more than a year, once a week, delivering 400 to 500 liters (105-132 gallons) of soup,” Gomes explains. “There are about four or five huge pans and about 600 loaves of bread.”

To help strengthen the project, the pastor has the help of some business owners in the city. The Sopão receives donations from three markets, 13 bakeries, and a vegetable market. 

“It has been a blessing for everyone who participates, and for the community which receives the aid,” the pastor says. “Fighting for those in need is fulfilling the true mission Christ asked for.”

As a result of the work of these young people, a new church is being built in the Dapezão neighborhood and several families are already studying the Bible.

And solidarity doesn't stop there. With the arrival of Holy Week and Easter, the young people came together, and on March 20, Global Youth Day, they collected and donated about 1 ton of food in the region.

In addition to these efforts, Gomes says that more than 100 families in the city of Itabela have benefitted from basic food baskets on the occasion of the Easter Mutirão, an initiative of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and its educational and humanitarian institutions. 

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site.