JUST one dollar from every supermarket shopper would significantly boost drought support, says grass-roots campaigner and cattle producer Jack Neilson, "Two Rivers", Boulia, Outback Queensland.
Four days ago, Mr Neilson turned to Facebook and asked major Australian supermarket chains, Woolworths and Coles, to ask customers if they'd donate a dollar for drought affected farmers when purchasing their groceries.
The post quickly gained a big following and has now reached 1804 shares, which spurred Mr Neilson to make his Dollar for Drought petition.
In the past four days, the change.org petition been followed by 3693 people and all pledged to support Mr Neilson's call.
Mr Neilson runs a breeding herd of Brahman cattle on his family station, which they had to start destocking in February.
"We've sold everything that we could possibly sell, we've only got our core breeders left," he said.
Like a lot of western QLD farmers, Mr Neilson and his family have had to give their stock supplements to keep them alive.
Mr Neilson said the struggles of farmers in Boulia reflect the drought struggles of farmers in areas all over Australia, including Northern NSW.
"It's not just people out in desert country, the drought's affecting people in safe country that usually gets rain," he said.
Whilst assistance from their communities and drought charities have been greatly appreciated by farmers, Mr Neilson said it was getting to the point where they'd need money to hold onto their farms.
"Getting 20 bales of hay is so appreciated, but if you've got 1000 head of cows you're trying to keep alive, you still have to outlay tens of thousands of dollars to keep them going," he said.
"Receiving some money to even allow farmers to buy something for themselves would go a long way in helping."
Mr Neilson said his idea for Dollar for Drought came after a conversation with his aunty, who said people from the city were beginning to understand the dire circumstance some farmers were going through.
"She said they were getting educated on it, they just needed a simple way to offer their help," he said.
Mr Neilson's wants to put donation buckets at cash registers in local supermarkets, where hundreds of people visit everyday.
Mr Neilson said the donation buckets would remove the complexity for people wanting to donate money.
Instead of having to give money over the internet with their credit cards, and confirm their emails, Mr Neilson said they could simply drop a dollar in the box and help.
"Even if one in every five people donated money to the cause, the difference it could make to people struggling could be significant," he said.
Coles and Woolworths told Mr Neilson that they have already donated money to drought in Australia and Mr Neilson is worried they'd missed the point.
"We're not asking them to give us money, we're simply asking them to get their customers involved with the cause," he said.
The Land will update readers on the campaign's progress.
