In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Girl Scouts will be running their cookie season online starting on Jan. 23.
One way Girl Scouts plans to sell is through a “Digital Cookie” platform. While offered in the past, it will serve as a primary part of cookie sales this season.
“Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Girl Scouts will not be selling cookies in person to the community. Almost everyone is familiar with the ubiquitous Cookie Booths springing up in their local communities. They will instead utilize their Digital Online Cookie storefront. Each Girl Scout has a custom online store to connect with her customers,” said Angelica Fields, the Diamond Crest Service Unit Cookie Manager.
Aside from the lack of booths and in-person sales, cookie distribution will remain similar to previous years.
“Customers can order Girl Scout cookies through a girl’s online store and can either have girl-delivered [contactless delivery] or have their cookies shipped from Little Brownie Baker, the bakery that manufactures the cookies our service unit sells,” Fields said.
Girl Scout Maddie Shoop-Gardner, a sixth-grade student in Troop 62551, worried about fewer sales from the online platform; however, she also knew about a solution to this issue.
“It is likely going to cause fewer sales than years prior because people are mostly going to share the link to people they know, rather than strangers. Girl Scouts predicted this, and the price of some cookies increased to make up for the lack of sales,” Shoop-Gardner said.
Shoop-Gardner’s troop plans on using the “Digital Cookie” site to help raise funds.
“Each Girl Scout creates a website on the Girl Scout Cookies webpage that allows you to place orders, see what the scout’s selling goal is, and see what the money from sales are going to,” Shoop-Gardner said. “Our troop still needs to discuss more where we want to donate some of the money, but in the past, we’ve donated to an organization that helps rebuild Girl Scout camps that have been destroyed by fires. We’ve also been saving up since kindergarten to eventually go on a trip somewhere, such as Hawaii when we’re older.”
In addition to purchasing cookies for themselves, customers can continue to donate cookies like they could in the past.
“If the customers would like to support their local Food Bank or the Military, they can donate a box of cookies through the “Gift of Caring” programs, also through the online store,” Fields said.
The Girl Scout website discussed the positive benefits of cookie sales for the scouts.
“As you help equip girls with the confidence and know-how they need to dream big and do bigger, you’re also giving yourself and your family the simple, powerful joy of biting into a delicious Girl Scout Cookie with lots of love, inspiration, and purpose in every bite,” the website read.
For more information about cookie-selling, visit www.ilovecookies.org. For more information about Girl Scouts, visit www.GSNorCal.org.
