Viral "Terrible sandwich" boy, mom fight childhood hunger
ARDMORE, Pa. (CBS) – A 9-year-old from Ardmore is thankful for social media. An older family video that just went viral is now helping to feed families in need.
Special delivery for 4th grader Abe Ndege and his mom, Ricki Weisberg.
This was just weeks after a video of Abe on the first day of school hit TikTok. As he was leaving the school bus, he said to his mom in all honesty, "Mommy? Terrible sandwich by the way."
Honest Abe's sandwich bashing quickly went viral with more than 50 million views around the world.
"It makes me feel surprised and think 'Oh, oh! That's how many people have seen my face and heard my voice?' Interesting," Abe said.
Using their new-found fame, Abe and his mom decided to put all of this attention to good use.
"This is a way of being like 'Hey Abe, I'm glad you're getting famous, but use that as a moment to help other people,'" Weisberg said. "And that's where we came up with this idea together to use it to fight childhood hunger."
They launched terriblesandwich.com, selling hats, shirts, mugs and lunch bags that say "Terrible sandwich by the way," and "Thanks for letting me know."
"Half of the proceeds will go to Feeding America, America's largest nonprofit to fight hunger, and we are really proud of that," Weisberg said.
"I'm fed well. I mean, what else could I need? I mean, I get extra stuff," Abe said. "But, some kids don't get any stuff. And we already have enough money to support us for a good amount of time. I hope enough people think about it and think it's a good thing to do and buy some merch, so some children in need can get helped."
An incredible teaching moment for Abe, but a great lesson for mothers, too.
"More moms should show their own failure because part of the video is other moms relating and having this moment of 'this is a big mess up for me ... it was a mom fail.' I am so excited this is happening and he roasts my sandwich skills and 50 million people have seen the video, but it gives me self-grace," Weisberg said.
Feeding America helps fund Philabundance.
