Aroma Pizza House surprises hungry kids with more than $600 worth of food after heartless prank

A pizza takeaway was left with more than $600 of food going to waste after a heartless prank order – but turned it into a “heartwarming and beautiful” act.

Two Aroma Pizza House employees, Jade and Benkil, with some of the food ordered during a prank and donated to Puddle Jumpers.

A popular pizza house in Adelaide’s northeast has been praised for turning a heartless prank into a delicious surprise for hungry kids, with a grateful charity wishing to have them “rewarded ten fold”.

On Thursday night, Aroma Pizza House Golden Grove received an order of more than $600 worth of food – then the person disappeared, leaving the business with a huge loss and an abundance of wasted food.

So owner Benkil Sheh contacted Puddle Jumpers – a not-for-profit Adelaide children’s charity – and offered to donate all the unclaimed food.

Delivery driver Rishi, 22, with some of the pizzas ordered and donated to Puddle Jumpers. Picture: Facebook

Calamari was part of the prank order. Picture: Facebook

“The owner rang us and he actually just said ‘can I donate some food to you? We’ve got some sitting here that will just be thrown out’. They got here and I opened it up and asked him how expensive it was and I was shocked,” Puddle Jumpers chief executive Melanie Tate said.

The food – pizza, chiko rolls, calamari and chips – was delivered to Puddle Jumpers’ food hub and volunteers took it to hungry kids.

CEO of Puddle Jumpers Melanie Tate. Picture: Supplied

Two Aroma Pizza House employees, Benkil and Jade, with some of the food ordered during a prank and donated to Puddle Jumpers.

One of the pizzas from Aroma Pizza House Golden Grove. Picture: Facebook

“Everyone here was so happy, the food was all consumed pretty quickly. What an amazing business they are, it really shows their true character,” Ms Tate said.

“I thought it was very quick-thinking of him. He didn’t want to be upset so he was ringing around to see if someone would be able to use it.

“He even offered to have it delivered. It was really heartwarming and a beautiful thing to do.”

Mr Sheh said Thursday was a “pretty bad day”, but it opened the door to do some charity work, something he’s always been passionate about.

“We decided ‘what’s the best thing we can do?’ so we searched up some nearby charities and then we saw that Puddle Jumpers was the only one open so we contacted them and asked if they wanted the food,” the 30-year-old said.

“We just tried to help someone in need instead of putting it in the bin. We just love to be helping people. Yesterday we got a chance, so we wanted to take it.

“We definitely would love to do more charity stuff in future for sure. We don’t want to do it for the publicity, we just want to help people. We said to Puddle Jumpers if they ever needed help or food or anything, we’ll always be available.”

Puddle Jumpers are now calling on Adelaideans to “rally together” and flood the Golden Grove business with orders, payments and pick-ups.

“It’s very admirable the way they’ve handled the situation and it’s very inspiring, I feel like the South Australian spirit will get around them,” Ms Tate said.

“With something like this, your first instinct isn’t always ‘how do I help someone else?’, it’s usually ‘how do I help myself?’.

“I hope they get rewarded ten-fold.”