Mrs Le moved to Orange five years ago and went from selling beef jerky at home to launching the Trang Hue food truck, followed by Trang's Kitchen in Summer Street, then in November 2019 she opened a Vietnamese eatery in the food court of the old Dalton Brothers' building attached to Orange City Centre.

She said her mother and sister helped her look after her young family and get her businesses started but they both moved back to Vietnam before the COVID-19 pandemic started.

Mrs Le said she was confident with her business and even enjoyed a 10-day holiday in Vietnam herself before the world changed.

"2019 was a really good year, now it's all gone," Mrs Le said.

With business down 30 per cent, her food truck not able to leave the area, and three and a half years left on her rental contracts, she is applying for government assistance and diversifying the business to stay afloat until the lockdown ends.

She said she is currently running the Summer Street business with one employee selling takeaways only as well as doing home deliveries of food packs, creating Father's Day beef jerky packs and people can order her sauces online.

Mrs Le said because she only had one Australian Business Number (ABN) she was not able to apply for Job Keeper for each business and she has faced the same problem with other loans and grants.

She said before she found out she was eligible for Job Keeper last year some of her 13 staff left to find work at supermarkets.

"I only have one girl left. Sometimes she [only] does two to three hours," Mrs Le said.

"Before I had my mum and my sister too. It's very hard, I never thought I could do this without my family one day."

She said Job Keeper kept the business going last year and when not in lockdown she was able to drive the food truck to various locations in the Central West.

"The landlord helped with the rent last year," she said.

"I didn't have any pay for myself last year, I used my savings."

However, she said her savings are now mostly gone.

Mrs Lee said she opens the Summer Street Shop for takeaway between 11am and 3pm from Monday to Friday, and from 5pm to 8.30pm Tuesday to Friday, but with the addition of food preparation it leads to long, exhausting hours.

She said she started Monday's food preparation after her children went to bed at 8pm on Sunday and she finally got to bed herself at 1am.

Without having more customers and money coming in she said she can't pay more people to work and she needs to be able to have two days off for her own wellbeing and to care for her three children, who are are aged eight, four and three years.

She said her husband also helps look after the children but he is sometimes away for work so she has to put them into childcare or take them to the restaurant.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: