Pizza and charity work don't always go hand in hand, but for Dino Ari, they're the perfect pairing

Ari is the owner of Dino's Wood Burning Pizza in Etobicoke, a popular joint specializing in traditional Italian Neapolitan pizza made in a wood-burning oven. But Ari is much more than just a pizza maker. He's also a humanitarian.

"I've achieved my goals as a business owner," said Ari. "I believe I owe it to the Canadian and to my local people. That's why I'm giving back."

Ari is of Kurdish descent. He arrived in Canada from Turkey as an immigrant in 2000 seeking better employment opportunities for himself. He's now a Canadian citizen.

Next month, he will travel to his hometown of Tunceli in the Anatolian region of Turkey to make pizza for hundreds of orphaned children, many of whom he says have never eaten pizza before.

"My motivation is to make these kids happy," said Ari. "These are kids with no mother and father … It is something different for them."

Paying it forward

It's also a way of bringing to his hometown the generosity he's experienced since moving to Canada.

"I want to do the same [for others] what Canada did for me."

Dino Ari hopes pizzas like this one will bring joy to these children. (Ryan Patrick Jones/CBC)

For his trip to Turkey, Ari is partnering with the local governor, orphanages and charity organizations to organize a series of lunch events. They will rent a local restaurant and the children will have the opportunity to watch the pizza-making process — and of course get a taste as well.

To make the pies, Ari says he'll be using mostly organic ingredients bought from local vegetable markets in the city of 30,000 people.

This is the second year in a row that he's done this. Last year, Ari says, he served pizzas to 200 children and that number could grow to 450 this year. He hopes to make it a yearly tradition.

"I think we should do something for our community," said Ari. "I'm trying to be a good citizen and a good person."

No stranger to charitable work

Back in the Etobicoke area, where his restaurant and business has a loyal base of customers, Ari is well known. He's also no stranger to charitable work.

The wall of Dino Ari's pizza restaurant is filled with pictures of celebrities and community members who have shared a slice together. (Ryan Patrick Jones/CBC) One regular customer is Rahul Singh, the executive director of GlobalMedic, a disaster relief organization headquartered around the corner from Ari's restaurant.

"I've been a customer of his forever," said Singh. "The pizzas are great and [Dino]'s a great neighbourhood guy."

Last summer, for example, Ari and a group of family members and employees personally delivered pizzas every Saturday to members of the city's homeless population at the Haven Drop-in Centre.

He's also volunteered to cook meals for Children's Breakfast Club, a non-profit that provides nutritious meals to 4,000 kids each week across the GTA, and regularly donates pizzas to a nearby women's shelter.

'What I know how to do'

And on Monday, when Singh and a group of 50 volunteers were preparing shipments of personal hygiene kits for local women in Toronto's shelter system and 1,500 "family emergency kits" for Syrian refugee families in northern Iraq, Ari showed up with seven free pizzas for the volunteers.

"He slowed us down a little bit because the food was a little too good," joked Singh.

But anything that rewards his volunteers for their time and effort is helpful to his organization, Singh says.

Dino Ari poses with Rahul Singh, executive director of GlobalMedic, at the GlobalMedic warehouse in Etobicoke. Ari donated seven free pizzas to GlobalMedic volunteers who were packing aid shipments for disadvantaged women in Toronto and refugee families in northern Iraq. (Ryan Patrick Jones/CBC)

"The whole principle of getting folks in to volunteer is to lower the cost of the transaction, to lower the cost of the aid that we deliver."

"So when Dino comes in and donates food, it shows a thank you," said Singh. "It's great when everybody pitches in."

Ari helps the only way he knows how.

"I'm a pizza maker. That's my business, that's what I know how to do."