Girl Scout Cookies

Girl Scout Cookies are cookies sold by Girl Scouts in the United States to raise funds to support Girl Scout councils and individual troops. The cookies are widely popular and are commonly sold by going door-to-door, online, through school or town fundraisers, or at "cookie booths" set up at storefronts. The program is intended to both raise money and improve the financial literacy of girls. During an average selling season (usually January through April), more than one million girls sell over 200 million packages of cookies and raise over $800 million. The first known sale of cookies by Girl Scouts was in 1917. Cookie sales are organized by 112 regional Girl Scout councils who select one of two national bakeries to buy cookies from.

The bakery selected determines which cookie varieties are available, when girls can begin selling cookies in their area, and cookie price. The bakery is paid about 25 to 35 percent of the profits; 45 to 65 percent is used by the regional council to cover programming costs; and 10 to 20 percent is kept by the local troop whose members decide how to spend their portion of the funds. A regional council receives up to 60 percent of its budget from cookie sales.

The 5 skills the “cookie program" is intended to develop:

The first known cookie sales by an individual Girl Scout unit were by the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in December 1917 at their local high school. In 1922, the Girl Scout magazine The American Girl suggested cookie sales as a fundraiser and provided a simple sugar cookie recipe from a regional director for the Girl Scouts of Chicago. In 1928, the Girl Scout manual suggested sales of cookies to make a troop self-supporting. In 1933, Girl Scouts in Philadelphia organized the first commercial sale, selling homemade cookies at the windows of the Philadelphia Gas and Electric Company (PGE). In 1934, the first official cookie sale was by the Girl Scout Council, in Philadelphia, contracting with a commercial bakery. From 1933 to 1935, organized cookie sales rose, with troops in Philadelphia and New York City using the cookie-selling model to develop the marketing and sales skills of their local troops. In 1936, Girl Scouts of the USA began licensing commercial bakers to produce cookies, in order to increase availability and reduce lead time, starting with Keebler-Weyl Bakery. Southern Biscuit Company and Burry Biscuit, both later acquired by the Interbake Foods division of George Weston Limited, were added in 1937. One hundred twenty five troops launched cookie sales that first year.

During World War II the Girl Scouts sold calendars in addition to cookies, because of shortages of flour, sugar, and butter. In 1943 there were 48 cookies per box. By 1943 Girl Scouts also collected fat in cans to aid the war effort and sold war bonds at no profit. In the 1950s, three more cookie recipes were added: "Shortbreads"/"Scot-Teas", "Savannahs" (today called "Peanut Butter Sandwich" in the west of the US or “Do-si-dos” in the east of the US), and "Thin Mints". Six types of cookies were being sold nationwide by 1956. Greater cookie sales occurred due to the Baby Boomer generation entering Girl Scouts in the 1960s. "Samoas" were added in the 1970s. In 1978, the National Council reduced the number of bakeries providing cookies to four and standardized the packaging and pricing of the cookies.

In the 1990s, the National Council limited the bakeries providing cookies to just ABC Bakers (a division of Interbake Foods) and Little Brownie Bakers (a division of the Keebler Company). In 1998, cookie sale awards were instituted.

The Girl Scouts moved to eliminate trans fat from its cookies in 2005, and started providing nutritional information on the cookie box.

In January 2015, Girl Scouts began to offer customers the ability to purchase cookies using an online portal through a mobile app called "Digital Cookie". The app can only be used by Girl Scouts themselves with parent supervision, and Girl Scouts can share an individual link to their online cookie business with friends and family only. In January 2018, both the number of cookies in a box, and, in some cases, the size of a cookie, was reduced, due to rising costs of ingredients, and rising transportation costs.