Garden Insurance

Grow Pittsburgh started a group liability insurance policy for community gardeners in partnership with a local insurance company. By pooling risk among several gardens, costs can be kept extremely low for each individual garden to sign on. Liability insurance is often required to access land — such as the vacant lots owned by the City of Pittsburgh — or to participate in certain programming. A Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance policy is the first line of defense against many common claims (such as bodily injury or property damage) that could occur in a community garden or on other sites included in the policy. It enables an organization to continue operations while it faces real or fraudulent claims of certain types of negligence or wrongdoing.

Communities who struggle with the burden of the requirements to work on gardens open to residents may be able to replicate a similar model to increase capacity in high vacancy areas.