Girl Scout Cookies
In 1934, the first official cookie sale was by the Girl Scout Council, in Philadelphia, contracting with a commercial bakery.
[16] 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.
[20] During World War II the Girl Scouts sold calendars[21] in addition to cookies, because of shortages of flour, sugar, and butter.
[22][23][24][25][26] 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".
Greater cookie sales occurred due to the Baby Boomer generation entering Girl Scouts in the 1960s.
[31] The Girl Scout organization asks that members adhere to strict safety guidelines, including the cookie sale.
This type of fundraising is intended to teach Girl Scouts valuable entrepreneurial skills such as planning, teamwork, financial literacy, organization, communication, and goal setting.
[39] In 2017, Charlotte McCourt, a girl scout from New Jersey, sold over 25,000 boxes of cookies, breaking the record.
[43] A 2006 article in The Boston Globe noted that price "is hardly ever a factor, until buyers find out that the same box of cookies is selling for less in the next town over."
The Globe found that a box of Thin Mints sold for $3.50 in Rockland, Massachusetts, and $4.00 in neighboring Norwell.
[20][11] The profits are divided by a formula, with local troops receiving about 10–15% of the retail price, the council more than 50%, and the manufacturer the remainder.
Girl Scout cookie varieties include: Federal guidelines issued in early 2005 called for people to minimize their consumption of trans fat.
[76] In 2007, following reformulation of the recipes for a number of varieties, Girl Scouts of the USA announced that all their cookies had less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving, allowing them to meet the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements for "zero trans fat" labeling.
[78] Amongst the pledges made, GSUSA announced it would purchase GreenPalm certificates to support the sustainable production of palm oil.
The 2011 policy was formed in response to a prolonged campaign by two Girl Scouts, Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen.
In 2007, as 11-year-olds, Vorva and Tomtishen earned their Girl Scout Bronze Award by raising awareness of the endangered orangutan and their rapidly diminishing rainforest habitat in Indonesia and Malaysia.
When they discovered that the Girl Scout Cookies contained palm oil, an ingredient whose production results in rainforest destruction and human rights abuses, the two girls launched a variety of campaigns in order to convince GSUSA to remove this ingredient from their cookies.
