Girl Scout cookies are more than just a sweet treat
Philadelphia council created the fundraiser with benefits beyond Scouting
Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster once declared cookies “…like high five for stomach.”
The Girl Scout cookies on sale through March 10 are all that and then some, and the latter goes far deeper than the instant gratification of a Thin Mint or Caramel deLite. In short, says one leader, the campaign helps girls learn “how to be advocates for their community and give back.”
The iconic sale has area roots. According to histories that trace those roots, a number of troops sold homemade cookies to benefit various relief efforts after Juliette Gordon Low created Girl Scouts in 1912. Scouting’s Philadelphia Council launched the first sale of commercially-sourced
cookies in 1934 during the heart of the Great Depression.
According to https://explorepahistory.com, the transition from homemade followed Philadelphia-area Girl Scout Council’s decision “to use cookie sales to raise money for its Camp Indian Run in Glenmoore, Chester County, (and)…a Girl Scout leader asked the head of Keebler-Wyl Baking Company to bake and package Girl Scout cookies.
“Keebler-Wyl baked
100,000 boxes of the first commercially produced Girl Scout cookie — a vanilla cookie in the form of the Girl Scout symbol, the trefoil — at 260 North 22nd Street for the Girl Scouts’ December cookie sale.”
Keebler-Wyl became national supplier for the trefoil cookie in 1936.
“Between Oct. 24 and Nov. 7, the Girl Scouts of America held their first official nationwide sale of Girl Scout cookies,” Explore PA History continues. “The sale became an annual tradition until shortages in sugar, flour and butter during World War 2 forced the Girl Scouts to switch from selling cookies to calendars (but) resumed in 1945…”
A Girl Scout Cookies Historical Marker at 1401 Arch St. in Philadelphia notes that the Keebler-Wyl cookies sold for 23 cents a box or six boxes for $1.35. These days, they’re $5 per box here ($6 per box for gluten-free Caramel Chocolate Chip), compared to $7 a box in New York.
Cookie pricing is set by a given area’s Scouting Council, explains Maureen Adgie, service unit manager for the 20 troops located in Eastern Pennsylvania Council’s Colonial Service Unit 650. Proceeds from direct sales or monetary donations help support Girl Scout camps and activities as well as a variety of nonprofit organizations.
Adgie said past beneficiaries have included school bus drivers, the U.S. Army National Guard, fire company and Red Cross volunteers, hospital staffers, Colonial Neighborhood Council, Laurel House and the USO.
“Each troop gets to choose what we call our Hometown Heroes…different community helpers… that they will donate cookies to,” she added. “With the Hometown Heroes, some troops have a dedicated percentage of their cookie funds that go straight to a charity. The whole idea of Girl Scouts is that it’s to be ‘girl led.’ They’re in control of the cookie sale…who their donations are going to.
“Sometimes the girls use their troop’s proceeds to create something…do a drive or go out shopping for items to donate. Like, for example, we have Scouts who (recently) donated dinner to the Code Blue shelter at the Church on the Mall (in Plymouth Meeting). To do that, the girls had to research where they were going to order food from, within the budget they had. They also created decorative pieces for the tables and helped set up the cots for the folks who were sleeping at the shelter. So, something like this also helps with the girls’ skill-building.”
Midway through 2024’s cookie campaign, Adgie says Colonial district Scouts sold 26,072 boxes during the sale’s initial three weeks “which put us ahead of
2019, 2020 and 2021 sales with four weeks left.” In addition, “for the first time in at least six years, 100 per cent of our 20 troops are selling, with the highest percentage of Girl Scouts selling in at least six years — 205 or 89.1 per cent of all registered Scouts.”
Top sellers? Thin Mints, Caramel deLites and Peanut Butter Patties.
“We’ve had a huge response from the community this year,” Adgie said. “In the past year, we’ve doubled the number of troops in our service unit, and I think that some of the seasoned girls and adults were
a little nervous about what that would do to sales because, obviously, we have more girls selling cookies. We have a ton of brand-new Daisy troops for kindergarteners and first-graders, and even those little girls who are just getting familiar with the program are selling out of cookies.
“We also have a bunch of new booth locations this year, which have been very successful. So, it’s been wonderful. The community’s been so charitable…donating money, buying boxes all over the place.”
Despite a certain Facebook posting…
“Somebody posted…‘Hey, just to let everyone know, ALDI has the same cookies, and they’re just $2,’” Adgie said. “The poor gentleman was just lambasted, with every single person saying ‘That’s not why we buy these cookies.’ Which goes back to the real purpose of this program…that the girls learn what we call the five skills: Goal-setting, decision-making, business ethics, money management and people skills.
“The girls, whether they’re out at a booth or knocking on their neighbor’s door, they’re learning how to speak to people, how to sell a product and learn about a product, what they can do with the money they make as a troop…making a group decision. They’re also doing good work. Giving back to our community.
“We’re out there cleaning up parks and building little libraries, helping to feed folks at places like Colonial Neighborhood Council. ‘Making the world a better place,’ as we say in Girl Scouts.”