Checkout Change Helping Local Farmers

IN just two weeks the local community have donated $1,000 in loose change to support our local farmers.

Cheryl Eveleigh, who works at Coles in Scone as moved by the stories of local farmers and arranged to have donation barrels for “Buy a Bale” placed at all of the checkouts.

“We are the first Coles store to come on board and our regional manager will be putting them in all of our regional stores,” said Ms Eveleigh.

Cheryl Eveleigh encourages the community to support local farmers at Coles in Scone.

“There is a barrel on each register now and people can put their loose change in it and it is deposited into the bank account, with 90 percent of the money raised in the area coming back to the area – handing out free bales of hay, gift cards to shop at Coles and helping with fencing – it’s pretty awesome,” she said.

“It’s really hard because they need to rebuild now and if they get a dose of rain it won’t help them, it will take years to get it back to where they were it’s really heartbreaking.

“Everyone struggles in their own way, but when you are a farmer, my dad was a farmer, and you are out there and trying to make ends meet and you can’t when there is a massive drought.

“If we don’t have farmers we don’t have food and when the farmers are doing well, local businesses in town do well, this really knocks every business in town, we aren’t all about horses here we are about local farmers and we have to look after them.

“You’ve got to help where you can,” she said.

Cheryl also explained you can ‘dob in a farmer’.

“You can actually dob in a farmer for assistance if you have their phone number,” she said.

“Farmers are proud people, they don’t like to take assistance, but if you know of a farmer who is doing it tought and they won’t put their hand up – dob them in,” she said.

“The lady from Buy a Bail is very nice and wants to help and that’s what it’s all about, helping our farmers,” Cheryl Eveleigh sad.

You can contact Buy a Bail organised by Rural Aid on 1300 327 624.

There are also donation tins at McDonald’s in Scone.