Girl Scout Cookies

thumb|right|250px|A variety of 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. 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. They 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. In the 1960s, greater cookie sales occurred due to the Baby Boomer generation entering Girl Scouts. In the 1970s, "Samoas" were added and in 1978, the National Council reduced the number of bakeries providing cookies to four and standardized the packaging and pricing of the cookies. 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.

In June 2021, about 15 million boxes of cookies remained unsold, due to onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to normal sales of about 200 million boxes.

Sales

Program

Girl Scouts sell cookies to relatives, friends, neighbors, and others in their town or city. Some councils offer the option for customers to sponsor boxes of cookies sent to U.S. servicemen and women. The Girl Scout organization asks that members adhere to strict safety guidelines, including the cookie sale. For example, Girl Scouts, depending on their age, must be accompanied or supervised by an adult when selling Girl Scout Cookies and must always use the buddy system. As of 2015, Girl Scouts can also sell cookies online through the Digital Cookie mobile app.

Benefits and incentives

According to the GSUSA, the program is the largest girl-run and girl-led financial literacy program in the world, teaching girls skills like goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics. These skills are reinforced with Girl Scout badges, such as "Cookie CEO".

As an incentive to sell, Girl Scouts are offered recognitions and rewards, such as stuffed animals, trinkets, coupons, or credits toward Girl Scout camp, activities, or uniforms. These recognitions and rewards vary from Girl Scout council to council. The rewards are usually cumulative, so that a girl who earns the reward for selling 50 boxes of cookies will also get the 25- and 20-box items. In some councils, girls may choose to earn more money for their troop instead of recognitions if they are working toward a troop goal such as a trip or other expensive activity. This type of fundraising is intended to teach Girl Scouts valuable entrepreneurial skills such as planning, teamwork, financial literacy, organization, communication, and goal setting.

She is known for selling cookies to sitting president Ronald Reagan. Her record held for more than twenty-nine years, until Katie Francis, 12, sold 18,107 boxes in 2014. In 2017, Charlotte McCourt, a girl scout from New Jersey, sold over 25,000 boxes of cookies, breaking the record. In 2021, Lilly Bumpus, a childhood cancer survivor, broke the record by selling 32,484 boxes.

Profits

The Girl Scouts say their sale of cookies is the largest annual fundraiser in the world dedicated to girls.

Traditionally each regional Girl Scout council set the prices for cookies sold in that council. 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. As of 2018, more than 200 million boxes are sold each cookie selling season for $800 million, leaving approximately $600 million in net revenue to the Girl Scouts to be distributed. In 2023, the same two companies were producing all Girl Scout cookies.

Varieties

Up to 12 varieties of Girl Scout cookies are offered. The same cookies may be sold under different names by different bakeries, with the choice of bakery determining the name. There has been no move to standardize names. The merger of many councils (from 312 to 109) following the August 2006 reorganization resulted in many councils changing bakeries, thus causing some confusion at that time. Samoas contain about 15 cookies per box.

Girl Scout cookie varieties include:

{| class="wikitable"

! ABC Bakers (Interbake) !! Little Brownie Bakers (Keebler) !! Sales

| Caramel DeLites || Samoas || 19% ||Vanilla cookies coated in caramel, sprinkled with toasted coconut and laced with compound chocolate stripes.

|Adventurefuls || Adventurefuls || || Indulgent brownie-inspired cookies topped with caramel flavored creme and a hint of sea salt.

|Exploremores

|Rocky Road ice cream-inspired cookies filled with flavors of chocolate, marshmallow and toasted almond crème.

Aloha Chips (LBB): Included white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.
Chalet Creme Assortment (LBB): Shortbread cookie with embossed chalet picture with two sleeves of cookies, one with lemon-filled and the other with vanilla-filled cookies. Sold from 1990 to 1995.
Cranberry Citrus Crisps (ABC): Whole grain cookie with cranberry bits and citrus flavoring.
Coconut Creams (LBB): Sandwich cookie filled with coconut cream. Box had one row vanilla, one row chocolate; sold in the purple box theme. Sold in Broken Arrow (suburb of Tulsa, Oklahoma) by Girl Scout of the former Magic Empire Council by Little Brownie Bakers from 1981-1983.
Country Hearth Chocolate Chip (LBB): Low-fat chocolate-chip cookie made with oatmeal. Sold from 1988 to 1990.
Juliettes (LBB): Caramel-pecan cookie with a fudge coating. Sold from 1993-1995.
Lemon Chalet Cremes: Rectangular cinnamon sandwich cookies with lemon creme filling. Sold from 2007 to 2011; changed to round cookies in 2009; replaced by Savannah Smiles in 2012.
Olé Olés (LBB): Powdered-sugar cookies with pecans and coconut; sold from 2001 to 2003.
Rah-Rah Raisins (LBB): Oatmeal cookies with raisins and Greek yogurt-flavored chunks. Sold from 2014 to 2016.
Reduced-Fat Chalet Creme (LBB): 30% less fat lemon creme and vanilla creme sandwich cookies. Sold from 1995 to 1997.
Savannah Smiles (LBB): Lemony wedges coated with powdered sugar. Sold from 2011 to 2019. Replaced by Lemon-Ups (LBB) in 2020.
S'mores (LBB): Crunchy graham sandwich cookies with creamy chocolate and marshmallow filling. Features embossing of the Girl Scout S’mores logo on the front and one of the 5 Girl Choice Outdoor Badges on the back. Sold from 2016 to 2025, replaced by Exploremores in 2026.
Snaps (LBB): Iced oatmeal raisin. Sold from 1993 to 1997.
Strawberries & Creme (ABC): Sandwich cookie with a vanilla creme and a strawberry jam; available in mid-1990s.
Striped Chocolate Chip & Pecan (LBB): Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookie made with Oatmeal and a chocolate bottom coating. Sold from 1997 to 1999.
Upside Downs (ABC): Oatmeal cookies with frosting on the bottom; discontinued in 1990.
Vanilla and Chocolate Sandwich Cremes (Burry): Vanilla and chocolate sandwich cookies; sold 1949-1973 and rebranded as Van'Chos in 1974.

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.

High-fructose corn syrup is not used in any of the cookies. Amongst the pledges made, GSUSA announced it would purchase GreenPalm certificates to support the sustainable production of palm oil. The certificates offer a premium price to palm oil producers who are operating within the guidelines for social and environmental responsibility set by the Roundtable on Sustainable 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. Vorva and Tomtishen were awarded the UN Forest Heroes Award in 2011.

Lawsuit

In March 2025, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Girl Scouts, alleging toxic metals and pesticides found present in several popular Girl Scout cookies. Girl Scouts denied these claims. The lawsuit, which did not claim anyone was harmed in consumption of these cookies, cited a flawed, non-peer-reviewed study from advocacy groups Moms Across America and GMO Science, which claimed to have found high levels of aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury in some cookies.