It’s been all hands on deck at Steve’s Pizza for more than a week now.

Last week, the takeout-only pizza joint in Battle Creek garnered a lot of attention because one employee went above and beyond for a customer.

Dalton Shaffer, a manager at Steve’s Pizza, drove three-and-a-half hours to Indianapolis to deliver a pizza to a cancer patient named Rich Morgan and his wife, Julie.

“I just wanted to do that for them,” Shaffer said. “I just wanted to make them happy.”

Shaffer didn’t even tell anyone that he would be doing it.

“I heard about it I think Monday night, possibly Tuesday,” said Jeremy Shaffer, Dalton Shaffer’s uncle and the owner of Steve’s Pizza. “I was pretty impressed with the kid. It didn’t surprise me a bit that he did that, but I was a little surprised he didn’t tell me. He totally kept it a secret.”

Julie Morgan wrote about what he did on Facebook, then the Battle Creek Enquirer wrote a story, and then lots of other media outlets did stories, including CNN and FOX News.

Dalton Shaffer made the delivery on Oct. 13. Rich Morgan died a week later.

As the story of the delivery traveled around the world, Steve’s Pizza has gotten an influx of new customers and old ones looking to show their support.

“I had a guy come from Pennsylvania last weekend, just to come try this pizza because he’s heard about it on national news,” Jeremy Shaffer said. “It’s picked up quite a bit, business has.”

“I just wasn’t prepared for this to take off,” he added. “We thought it would be a normal week, and it turned out to be an abnormal week.”

Shaffer has had customers from Toledo, Cleveland, Niagara Falls and Buffalo drive to Battle Creek to buy pizza. Many more have promised to make a stop if they’re ever in Michigan.

“I will make an effort to visit this pizza joint if I am ever in the area!” Brenna McNamara, whose Facebook profile states that she lives in Modesto, California, posted on Steve’s Pizza’s Facebook page.

“We will be (coming) up there to eat just because of what this company did,” Bonnie Fuller, from Indianapolis, posted.

Enough unexpected customers have dropped by that at one point last week Steve’s Pizza was an hour and a half behind, playing catch up with putting out pizzas, Shaffer said.

He hasn't actually tallied up the number of customers, but "it’s a lot more,” he said.

On Oct. 19, Steve’s Pizza even ran close to running out of dough for the very first time, Shaffer added. The store had 13 prepared balls of dough left when it closed for the night.

Longtime regulars have continued to show up, despite the increase in wait times, to show their support.

“I thought it was great,” said John Pitale. “I’ve been coming here since (Jeremy Shaffer’s) dad, Steve, was here. The whole family’s that way. They’ve got heart.”

A less happy consequence of the uptick in customers is that Shaffer had to pull back on adding some new things to the menu.

“I was literally a week away from introducing a gluten-free crust,” he said. “I can’t put it out there right now, because I think it would be too much for what we’re doing now.”

He’s also putting off introducing a couple of dessert pizzas until things calm down.

“I think that we’re probably going to slow down a little bit,” Shaffer said. “But I hope we keep some of those people who have come by and I hope they’re content.”

Contact reporter Natasha Blakely at (269) 223-0114 or nblakely@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter at @blakelynat.