Madiba face made of food cans breaks world record

Ladles of Love smashed a world record by by building the largest mosaic of Madiba’s face – created entirely out of food cans.

Cape Town CBD- based NGO Ladles of Love broke a world record on Mandela Day yesterday, Monday July 18, by building the largest mosaic of Madiba’s face – created entirely out of cans of food.

Ladles of Love founder Danny Dilberto places the last food can on the mosaic.

The event took place in Johannesburg and Cape Town simultaneously, with the Cape Town event being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

The mosaic of the South African flag made of food cans at Nelson Mandela Square in Johannesburg.

Johannesburg saw 32 040 food cans placed on the South African flag mosaic, with Cape Town seeing 56 685 food cans placed on the Madiba mosaic.

At the end of the day, the food cans were packed up and will be given to communities in need in the coming weeks.

Ladles of Love volunteer Neville Conchar from Sea Point helps put together the last lot of cans.

After the record attempt was complete, Ladles of Love founder Danny Dilberto thanked everyone for their contribution. “Madiba is a proud example of activism and today was a good example of activism and collaboration.

Comedian Marc Lottering also supported the Mandela Day event.

“Today was huge, and the spirit of Ubuntu in both cities was incredible. We placed around 90 000 food cans on the mosaics across the two cities and we’ve raised so much in terms of actual food and support to carry on with our mission to feed as many people as we can for as long as we can, and we cannot thank those that got involved enough.”

This is not Ladles of Love’s first attempt at a world record. The world record for the “longest line of food cans” was smashed by more than double at the V&A Waterfront on August 29 last year with a 6.7km line of 94 560 food cans.

The previous year, the world record for the “most amount of sandwiches made in one hour” was broken by 304 000 home-made sandwiches, compared to the previous record of 115 000.

Apart from the record-breaking event, there were other activities which people could participate in to contribute 67 minutes of goodwill for Mandela Day.

Activities included a knitting station, where people could knit 15cm x 15cm squares to be made into scarves and blankets; a chopping station, where people could chop up vegetables to be sent to community soup kitchens; and a sandwich making station for distribution to early childhood development centres.

In the knitting corner are Kelly Maree Damoe and Toni Achilles, both from Kuils River.

By the end of the day, 1.3 tonnes of vegetables were chopped up and donated in Johannesburg, with 2.5 tonnes chopped and donated in Cape Town.

A total of 55 000 sandwiches were made in both cities.

Siyamnika Mazinyo, Kenneth Bolo and Sinethemba Moyo, all from Kraaifontein, got into the spirit of Mandela Day with South African flags painted on their faces.
Iris Caldeira, 6, with her mom Nadia Caldeira, from Sea Point, sat in the kids corner, where they coloured pictures of Madiba.
Chopping veggies for soup kitchens are Thabile Ngomane from Zonnebloem, Gwen Petersen from Athlone and Carly Barns from Woodstock.
Gwen Petersen from Athlone helps at the chopping station
Nomakhaya George, Victoria Maqolo and Melanie Petersen, all from Khayelitsha, dressed traditionally for the occasion.