PEOPLE around Australia have begun buying meals and sending them to central Victorians in need after a social media post galvanised people to act.
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Nicole Murphy sent the message to her contacts when the latest lockdown hit.
"Every time we have a lockdown I wonder if we'll make it. It's been really hard," she said.
"I was sitting there thinking about that when this lockdown hit, so I posted something about it online."
Within days, people from Western Australia to New South Wales had bought $500 worth of food and told the business to forward the goods to others in need.
Many are podiatrists who know Nicole from her professional work outside of Bendigo Wholefoods.
She has since been busy finding people in need.
A number of meals will go to National Disability Insurance Scheme clients local support workers say could use some assistance as lockdown bites.
Most will go to Bendigo Foodshare in a delivery scheduled for Monday and some might go to nurses who were staying in town in accommodation that lacked extensive kitchen facilities.
The outpouring of support has prompted Nicole to add a new "pay it forward" button to her company's website.
Businesses owners across the state are thanking the public for their support as the lockdown strains earnings.
On Thursday, Australian Hotels Association Victoria executive board member and Hotel Shamrock Bendigo owner Ray Sharawara said the toll would be "massive again".
"To be honest we hadn't recovered in the same way from lockdown five as we had from lockdown four," he said.
It was no different for many of the businesses that can remain open through the current lockdown.
Bendigo Wholefoods could still trade but each lockdown had been "really bad", Nicole said.
"If people can only go five kilometres from home they are more likely to do one big shop and that's probably going to be online through one of the big two supermarkets," she said.
"You just do less of that lovely meandering shopping."
Bendigo Wholefoods' cafe is open this lockdown for takeaway orders.
"You get enough practice at this stuff to work out that while you can't do the food some ways there are other ideas to make that work, so at least our kitchen staff can be active," Nicole said.
"You just always ask 'how do we save ourselves?' And we keep changing to make it happen."
It remains unclear whether the state will come out of the latest seven day lockdown on schedule.
Multiple people who had contracted the virus could have been contagious while out in the community, premier Daniel Andrews told reporters on Saturday.
Authorities confirmed 29 active cases on Saturday morning, all of whom had been in the community while infectious.
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