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. History 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.