‘Terrible sandwich, by the way’: Ardmore kid goes viral for roasting his mom’s school lunch

After a long, first half-day of kindergarten at Penn Valley Elementary School, Abraham “Abe” Ndege had something on his mind.

His mom, Ricki Weisberg, had packed him a sandwich for lunch and Abe wasn’t having it. It was not a good sandwich, if he was being honest.

So after his first day, he stepped off the school bus and hugged his mom, then gave his honest appraisal of what he felt was a truly lackluster lunch.

“Mommy. Terrible sandwich by the way,” Abe says, looking up at her. “Really terrible.”

The wonderfully honest exchange between Abe and his mom was captured on video by Weisberg four years ago, but has become a viral sensation this week after Weisberg reposted it on TikTok. As of Thursday morning, it had a whopping 9.6 million views on the video platform.

Abe is 9 now and just started fourth grade, but Weisberg has been posting the funny clip at the start of school every year since it happened.

“It makes me happy because of how much joy it probably brought to people,” said Weisberg, who runs a public relations agency for nonprofit, social justice-focused organizations. “For me, I just love that piece of that. Life is hard. So giving people laughter and giving people a chance to relate and say ‘That’s my kid’ it makes me happy.”

Weisberg lives with her husband, Moni Ndege, and Abe in Ardmore and says her phone hasn’t stopped buzzing from the likes and shares. Big social platforms like The Shade Room have picked the video up, with most viewers commenting on how funny it is and how tender Weisberg’s relationship with her son is.

But most people just want to know one thing: What was the sandwich?

Well, the “terrible” sandwich was a hurried, thrown-together culinary endeavor, said Weisberg. Kindergarten at Penn Valley is only half-days, so Weisberg thought she was off the hook for Abe’s lunch. But, on Abe’s first day, Weisberg reread the school communication and realized she would, indeed, need to pack him food.

At first, Weisberg thought she could make him a classic: the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But due to food allergy considerations at the school, peanut butter was out of the question. Frantically, she reached for what she thought was the next best thing.

“I kind of panicked and I didn’t know what to do and I grabbed a stick of butter from the freezer,” she said. “I was, like, ‘I’ll make him a butter and jelly sandwich.’ Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

The butter, Weisberg would later find out, had gone bad. The sandwich was inedible. Abe’s critique was spot-on.

“He knows food,” said Weisberg. “He’s a real foodie kid. He loves food, he loves sushi, all different types of food. So when I got that critique I was, like, ‘I messed up. I really did something wrong.’”

Abe, who plays the piano and flute and likes playing video games and acting, has enjoyed his newfound stardom, said Weisberg. He was already talkative and a bit of a ham.

“He’s a real showman,” said Weisberg. “He wants to be a YouTuber. So he’s very excited for this potential. He has so much charisma and energy. And thinks it’s hysterical.”

At the end of his first day of fourth grade this year, before he found out the video had gone viral, Abe even joked about the sandwich snafu. His first words to his mom were, once again, “Terrible sandwich.”

As the video brightens up parents and kids’ first days of a new school year, Weisberg was grateful that most people have seen the quick clip as a sign that she’s doing a good job parenting.

“It makes me proud of Abe. it makes me proud of our relationship too,” said Weisberg. “It’s really hard being a mom. You never really know if you’re doing it right. So it feels like it’s positive energy out in the world.”