Ferina Randall says she was subject to more than a thousand abusive messages after Nourished for Nil publicly accused her of selling donated baby food. Photo / Warren Buckland
Ferina Randall says she was subject to more than a thousand abusive messages after Nourished for Nil publicly accused her of selling donated baby food. Photo / Warren Buckland
A Flaxmere mother says she has been spat at and verbally abused after she was wrongly accused of obtaining free baby food from a Hawke's Bay charity, and selling it.
Ferina Randall told Hawke's Bay Today she was subject to more than 1000 "abusive and horrible messages" after she waswrongly accused of selling food from Nourished for Nil.
Nourish for Nil is a charity that takes surplus food and redistributes it for free.
Randall says before this incident, she had no idea who Nourish for Nil was, or what they did.
After Randall produced proof she had purchased the food she was selling, Nourished for Nil founder Christina McBeth has apologised.
McBeth said the charity acknowledged they had no proof Randall was "on-selling" - a practice it has described as a "blatant abuse of food that is given in good faith".
Nourished for Nil founder Christina McBeth said they had "no proof" of Randall's on-selling. Photo / Warren Buckland
Nourish for Nil has apologised to Randall for erecting her photograph in their Hastings premises and a social media post that "named and shamed" her.
The publicity described her as a "chronic" on-seller and urged people to not buy food from her.
Randall says the apology was "unacceptable" and wants Nourished for Nil to place her photo and an apology in the windows of their three premises, and leave the two items up.
But McBeth said the original Facebook post accusation was online for two hours, and the apology was online for the same amount of time.
"We're not the judge and the jury – we're just an organisation trying our hardest to make sure food given in good faith is also received as such," she said.
"Our intention was not to have people go crazy and I do regret that happened."
NetSafe CEO Martin Cocker advised all businesses and charities not to name and shame.
"Our advice is not to ever post accusations about people online – as soon as you do, you automatically carry the liability associated with it," he said.
"New Zealand law applies to New Zealanders when they are online just as much as anywhere else. It doesn't matter if it's up in a shop window, on Facebook or someone saying it out loud, the law applies."
Randall said her 3-year-old daughter had grown out of the product she had been selling.
"During Covid, I ended up bulk, panic-buying baby food. But now she's older, she has normal food and I had heaps left," she said.
Randall has now given the food away, after Nourished for Nil's publicity.
"I ended up getting more than a thousand abusive messages and horrible comments towards me and the original post was shared more than 800 times," she said.
McBeth said the charity had posted Randall's photo and name after the charity received accusations against her in September.
In 2019, the charity had also received accusations about Randall, after it was noticed she was selling a product that was also given out by Nourished for Nil.
Randall said she was wrongly accused and has receipts from the past year for her purchases.
Randall said Nourished for Nil had defamed her. However, she could not afford to take court action against them.
"I've been told that going through a private lawyer could cost upwards of $30,000 and I don't have that kind of money."
McBeth has invited Randall to meet in person to resolve the matter.
"I would consider taking them up on the offer of a face-to-face apology,'' Randall said.
