Shepparton Pizzas is providing free pizza bread for people struggling to find a loaf amid coronavirus panic buying.
Owner Kruz Patel said it broke his heart when he bumped into a customer at Woolworths who could not buy a loaf of bread to make lunch for her kids at school.
“After seeing all this madness at the supermarket, I’ve made pizza bread,” Mr Patel said.
“It’s slightly different and more like focaccia.
“If you’re struggling to find yourself bread or know someone who needs some, please come in.”
Mr Patel ingeniously devised a new recipe on the fly, putting leftover pizza dough in the oven then taking it out halfway through to make a bread-like creation.
“Normally it will be thrown out, but if people are still being selfish buying up all the bread, then I’m here to help,” he said.
Mr Patel urged people not be hesitant about coming to his shop for some free pizza bread.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, if you can’t buy at supermarkets come on down,” he said.
“We are more than happy to provide people who are homeless or in aged care with bread, too.
“If we know where they’re living, I’m more than happy to get the boys out and deliver it to them.”
Despite many Shepparton businesses feeling the pinch of coronavirus, with dwindling numbers of customers and panic-buying, Mr Patel said he was not at all worried.
“Since fear of the virus hit, not a dollar has dropped from my business,” he said.
“Every week I see the same faces, so I’m not worried at all.”
Mr Patel was giving out free pizza bread as of 3 pm on Tuesday, and said if he had only one dough left, he would prioritise the elderly or the at-risk over other buyers.