Good Samaritan laws are a defense. They are not a reason nobody sues you.

Product liability on donated food

Illness or injury alleged to come from food you distributed, however it was sourced.

Without it — Federal and state protections reduce liability for good-faith donation, but they do not stop the claim being brought or pay to defend it.

General liability and property

The warehouse, the distribution site, the queue outside and injury to anyone in it.

Without it — High public footfall, pallets, forklifts and cold storage in one building.

Workers compensation — including volunteers

Staff and volunteers who lift, pack, load and drive, elected onto the policy where the state permits.

Without it — Lifting injuries are the everyday claim here, and most of the lifting is done by volunteers.

Hired and non-owned auto

Volunteers collecting from stores and delivering to sites in their own vehicles.

Without it — Collection and delivery runs are constant, and personal auto policies exclude them.

Spoilage and equipment breakdown

Refrigeration failure and the stock lost with it, including failure from an internal cause.

Without it — A walk-in that fails overnight destroys the inventory, and property excludes internal breakdown.

Directors and officers

Board claims over governance, restricted funds and employment decisions.

Without it — Grant-funded organizations have documented obligations, and falling short of one is a claim.

Group health and benefits

Cover for the staff you would rather not retrain every quarter.

Without it — Turnover is the largest hidden cost in an hourly workforce, and this is the benefit that decides between two jobs paying the same.

Doesn’t the Good Samaritan act protect us completely?

It protects you substantially and it does not do what people think. Federal and state food donation protections limit liability for food given in good faith, and they are a real and strong defense — but a defense is something you raise after you have been sued. They do not prevent a claim being filed, they do not cover the cost of defending it, and they generally do not apply to gross negligence or intentional misconduct, which is precisely what a plaintiff will allege in order to get around them. So the practical answer is that the statutes make you very likely to win and insurance is what pays for winning. Keep the handling records too: temperature logs and date checks are what turn "good faith" from an assertion into evidence.

Our volunteers drive their own cars to collect donations. Is that covered?

Not by their own policies, and that is the gap. A personal auto policy excludes use of the vehicle for business purposes, and collecting for an organization is a business purpose regardless of whether anyone was paid. If a volunteer causes an injury accident on a collection run, their insurer has grounds to deny and the organization is the party with assets. Hired and non-owned auto is inexpensive relative to the exposure and it is the coverage food programs most often do not have.