“If you were thinking of doing your shopping on Friday or Sunday, come Saturday,” he said.

Woolworths stores across Australia will donate all the money from their produce, meat, seafood, fruit and vegetable, and dairy sales on Saturday to Rural Aid. The money will be waved through to the charity’s Buy a Bale campaign, to help struggling families.

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The Woolwroths store in Moree has already been accepting donations in the form of groceries from its customers. 

According to Mr Finch, the store has already filled three hampers since the appeal was launched last week. He said it indicated that there was already immense support from the community.

“We know that the money we’re raising at Woolworths in Moree, is for our community with some parts doing it tough,” he said.

Mr Finch noted that he could see the effect of the drought as he walked down the main street.

“I originally came from the coast, before I moved to Moree just before last Christmas. I had a concept of what the drought was, but didn’t fully realise the scope of it until I moved here. I don’t depend on rain to make my livelihood, but I see so many farmers and stores do, and I’ve seen what happens when the rain doesn’t come.”

He observed that spending patterns at the local store had already changed, as families felt the pinch of the drought. 

“It’s sad to see this happen.”

Organisations like the SES, Rural Fire Brigade and PCYC have already thrown their support behind the store.

“We’ve helped a lot of organisations in the past, and now we’ve reached out and asked them if they could help us,” Mr Finch said.

A barbecue will be fired up, and meat and fruit and vegetable trays will be raffled on the day.

“Woolworths is already putting up as much stock as we possibly can. I hope to be running around like crazy tomorrow,” Mr Finch said.

The appeal will begin at 7am and close at 10pm.