Sugar, spice and everything nice. Add a slice of love. And you get a Mandela sandwich!

A sandwich purportedly inspired by one of the world’s greatest political figures — Nelson Mandela of South Africa — would naturally be very, very special, made perhaps with the greenest of lettuce, the reddest of tomatoes, and the plumpest and sweetest of fine berries.

But that would be over-assuming as the famed Mandela sandwich is actually just plain wheat bread and crunchy peanut butter.

It is only made special by one ingredient: Love.

The baker

The former president of South Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, gave birth to this idea of a bread that would be fed to the 5.5 million hungry children of his country. True to his promise that “each child would have something to eat” during his presidency from 1994 to 1999, Mandela created the Sandwich as an important component of a program in some of the poorest areas of South Africa.

The Mandela Sandwich was the only meal that these children would receive, simple, yes but nutritious that would boost the children’s performance in school. The sandwich became their staple lunch baon.

It does not come as a surprise that every July 17 of the year, when organizations, communities and individuals honor Nelson Mandela for social justice through works of charity, the Sandwich would always play a special role.

The bakery

Here in the Philippines, the Nelson Mandela Day was observed last July 17 with a feeding activity organized by M.Y. Rights in cooperation with the South African Embassy and held in Novaliches, Quezon City.

M.Y. Rights is an organization that promotes the rights of children through values education, the very same foundation on which the works of Nelson Mandela stand on.

At the celebration, children were given cereal bars, oranges and juice — straight from South Africa — and of course, the Mandela Sanwich! The embassy staff also shared time with the children through storytelling and sports tutorials.

“Kids are the same all around the globe,” Ambassador Designate H.E. Nyamande-Pitso remarked. “They want to be loved, cared, and looked after. We should inculcate good deeds in them.” The envoy said she hopes that they are getting the message across to the young ones of this country and hopefully, around the world as well.

2009 CNN Hero of the Year Efren Peñaflorida was around to celebrate the special day too. Hand in hand with M.Y. Rights founder Emanuel Bagual, Peñaflorida participated in the activities and helped distribute food, goody bags, and a map of South Africa to the children.

The satisfied customers

Volunteers also taught the children how to say “thank you” in the African language.

“Among the kids, we hope to see another Nelson and another Efren,” Ambassador Nyamande-Pitso said in her short speech. “They should see what heroes have done because these people have made a difference.”

The children and the organizers signify the start of a strengthening bond with their South African friends by imprinting their hands on a large cloth. Also drawn on the cloth were the South African flag, an image of Nelson Mandela on the center, and the Philippine flag. The children then posed with their masterpiece, with smiles clearly visible on their faces.

(With reports from Lester Babiera)