Girl Scout cookie

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A mound of Girl Scout cookies, this mound contains 74 cookies

Girl Scout cookies are any of several varieties of cookies sold by Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) as a fundraiser for their local Scout units. Members of the GSUSA have been selling cookies since 1917 to raise funds. Top-selling girls can earn prizes for their efforts. There are also unit incentives if the unit as a whole does well. In 2005, over 200 million boxes were sold.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] History

The first record of cookie sales by an individual Scout unit was by the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in December 1917. In 1922, the Girl Scout magazine The American Girl suggested cookie sales as a fund-raiser and provided recipes. In 1933, Girl Scouts in Philadelphia organized the first official sale, selling homemade cookies at the windows of local utility companies. The first Girl Scout cookie recipe was a sugar cookie. In 1936 the national organization began licensing commercial bakers to produce cookies.

During World War II the Girl Scouts sold calendars rather than cookies, due to shortages of flour, sugar, and butter.[1]

Starting in 2009, several of the cookie varieties were either made smaller or had fewer cookies per box, without a corresponding drop in price. In particular, there are now fewer cookies in a box of Thin Mints, Do-si-dos, and Tagalongs, and the Lemon Chalet Creme cookies are now smaller. The Girl Scouts have suggested that this change was necessary to compensate for rising cost of ingredients.[2]

[edit] Selling process

Each Girl Scout regional council decides which of the licensed baking companies to use for cookie sales within that council. That decision determines which varieties are available within the geographical area covered by the council.[3][4]

Most Girl Scouts sell cookies to their relatives, friends, neighbors, and to others in their town or city. In recent years, due to safety concerns, an increased emphasis has been placed on cookie booths, where girls sell from tables in well-frequented public areas, under the supervision of adult troop leaders, rather than door-to-door. Many councils also offer the option for customers to sponsor boxes of cookies to be sent to U.S. servicemen and women both overseas and at home.[5] In 2007, an official website was launched, allowing consumers to find out when and where to purchase Girl Scout cookies.

As an incentive to sell, Girl Scouts are sometimes offered prizes (stuffed animals, trinkets, coupons, credits toward Girl Scout camp, activities, or uniforms, etc.). These incentives vary from Girl Scout council to council, but girls generally earn incentives of successively higher value for the number of boxes they sell. The accumulation of prizes is usually cumulative, so that a girl who has won the prize for selling 100 boxes of cookies will also get the 75-box prize, the 50-box prize, the 25-box prize, the 20-box prize, the 15-box prize and the 10-box prize. In some councils, girls may choose to earn more money for their troop instead of prizes, if they are working toward a troop goal such as a trip or other expensive activities. This type of fundraising also can teach Girl Scouts valuable skills, including planning, teamwork, finance, organization, communications and goal setting.[3]

Thin Mints

Each regional Girl Scout council sets the prices for cookies sold by scouts 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": $3.50 in Rockland and $4.00 in neighboring Norwell, reflecting different decisions by the Girl Scout Council of Southeastern Massachusetts and the Girl Scouts Patriots' Trail Council, respectively.[6]

According to Girl Scouts of the USA spokeswoman Michelle Tompkins, the number of Thin Mints, Do-si-dos, and Tagalongs in each box will be reduced in 2009 due to the increasing costs of flour, baking oils, cocoa, and transportation. In addition, Lemon Chalet Cremes will be smaller.[7]

[edit] Profits

The profit from cookie sales is divided among three levels within the Girl Scouts organization: the national Girl Scouts of the USA, the regional councils, and the local troops of girls.[3]

Each Girl Scout council operates its own cookie sale. They set the price per box based on the local economy. The profits are divided by their own formula. Local troops get about 10-15 percent of the price paid, the council takes more than 50 percent, and the manufacturer gets the remainder. For a $4 box, the local troop will earn between 40 and 60 cents per box. The scout can earn a stuffed toy, a T-shirt or a patch for her uniform. In 1992 the Girl Scouts nationwide sold 175 million boxes of the cookies.[8]

Revenues at all levels are used to pay for events and activities for the Girl Scouts, maintenance of the council's Girl Scout camps and other properties, cookie sale incentives, and Council administration costs. Each council can provide a breakdown showing how cookie money is used in that council (this information is usually printed on the back of the Cookie Order Forms). The companies that produce the cookies get about one third of the selling price of the cookies.[9]

In 2008, 15-year-old Jennifer Sharpe from Dearborn, Michigan sold 17,328 boxes of cookies.[10] This was a new record for her troop and possibly an all-time record. Elizabeth Brinton is also famous for her record cookie sales, having sold more than 100,000 boxes in her time as a Girl Scout.

[edit] Production

Boxes of the two most popular Girl Scout cookies: Samoas (left) and Thin Mints (right)

Girl Scout cookies are made by large national commercial bakeries under license from Girl Scouts of the USA. The bakers that the organization licenses can change from year to year, though change is not common. In 2008 the licensed companies were Little Brownie Bakers (LBB), a subsidiary of Keebler, which is owned by Kellogg's, and ABC Bakers, a subsidiary of Interbake Food, which is owned by George Weston Limited.[9][11] ABC Bakers has been making cookies for the Girl Scouts since 1939.[4]

[edit] Varieties

Licensed baking companies can offer up to twenty eight varieties of Girl Scout cookies. The national Girl Scout organization reviews and approves all varieties proposed by the baking companies, but requires only three types: Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Sandwiches (called Do-Si-Dos by LBB) and Shortbreads (called Trefoils by LBB). The other kinds can be changed every year, though several popular favorites, such as Caramel DeLites (LBB's Samoas) and Peanut Butter Patties (Tagalongs by LBB), are consistently available. Each baking company names its own cookies. Thus the exact kinds, names, and composition of the cookies may vary from year to year, depending on which baking companies have been licensed, and what they have proposed.

Girl Scout cookie varieties include:[12][13]

  • Thin Mints: Thin, mint-flavored chocolate wafers dipped in a chocolate coating.
  • Peanut Butter Sandwiches/Do-si-dos: Peanut butter filling sandwiched between crunchy oatmeal cookies.
  • Peanut Butter Patties/Tagalongs: Crispy vanilla cookies layered with peanut butter and covered with a chocolate coating.
  • Shortbreads/Trefoils: A traditional shortbread cookie made in the shape of the Girl Scout trefoil logo.
Samoas are also called Caramel deLites.
  • Caramel DeLites/Samoas: Vanilla cookies coated in caramel, sprinkled with toasted coconut and laced with chocolate stripes.
  • All Abouts/Animal Treasures/Thanks-A-Lot: : Shortbread cookies dipped in fudge and topped with an embossed thank-you message in one of five languages, including English, Spanish, French, Chinese, and Swahili.
  • Lemon Chalet Cremes: Cinnamon sandwich cookies with lemon creme filling.
  • Cinna-spins Introduced in 2008 by ABC Bakers, Cinna-spins are cinnamon-flavored cookies that come in 100-calorie packs. Cinna-spins are shaped like miniature cinnamon rolls. Retired and replaced by Daisy Go Rounds.
  • Daisy Go Rounds: Very similar to Cinna-spins, this cookie replaced them for the 2009 sale. They are advertised as low fat and also come in 100 calorie packs. They are cinnamon flavored and shaped like daisies. These cookies are only available from ABC Bakers.
  • Sugar Free Chocolate Chips Introduced in 2008, they are small sugar free cookies.
  • Dulce De Leche Introduced in 2009, these are Latin caramel cookies.
  • Lemonades Round shortbread cookie with lemon icing.

The best selling Girl Scout cookies are:

  • Thin Mints (25% of total sales)
  • Samoas (Caramel deLites) (19% of total sales)
  • Tagalongs (Peanut Butter Patties) (13%)
  • Do-si-dos (Peanut Butter Sandwiches) (11%)
  • Trefoils (Shortbread) (9%)

The other varieties combined account for the remaining 23%.[14]

[edit] Trans fat content

Through 2005, Girl Scout cookies, like many other commercially baked cookies, contained trans fat—one gram per serving in the case of Thin Mints (four cookies), with two grams in every three Do-Si-Dos. Federal guidelines issued in early 2005 call for people to minimize their consumption of trans fat, which is now widely understood to be unhealthy for the heart. Concerned parents urged the Girl Scouts to address this and other health concerns about the cookies, suggesting that the cookie program is at odds with the Girl Scouts' healthy living initiative. The Girl Scout organization replied that the cookies are a treat which "shouldn't be a big part of somebody's diet," and said that they are "encouraging" the companies that bake the cookies to find alternative oils.[15]

In 2006, U.S. federal nutrition labeling requirements now mandate listing transfat content. In 2007, Girl Scouts of the USA announced that all their cookies now had zero trans fat per serving; many required reformulation to accomplish this.[16]

Girl Scout cookies are listed as having "0 trans fat per serving" and will have packaging saying Trans Fat Free. The cookies are not truly trans fat free, as various partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs, i.e., trans fats) are still listed in the ingredients.[17] Nonetheless, they now have a sufficiently small amount per serving to comply with the government's official standards for the Trans Fat Free label. (The official rules allow the label to appear where there are fewer than 0.5 grams per serving.)

[edit] See also

Scouting portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ Girl Scout Cookie History: 1940s
  2. ^ McGraw, Dan X. (January 22, 2009). "Rising costs bite into Girl Scout Cookie portions". The Dallas Morning News. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/taste/stories/012309dnmetgirlscoutcookies.1c01e735.html. Retrieved August 8, 2009. 
  3. ^ a b c Argen Duncan, "Girl Scout cookies take on new shape", El Defensor Chieftain, March 9, 2008
  4. ^ a b Lisa Abraham, "Girl Scout cookie fans are tasting a difference: Two baking companies have competing recipes", Akron Beacon Journal, March 5, 2008
  5. ^ Christopher Quinn, "Girl Scout cookies bound for troops overseas", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 13, 2008
  6. ^ McConville, Christine,"Thin Mints can be Cheaper by the Troop", The Boston Globe, April 2, 2006, p. 14
  7. ^ Delfiner, Rita, "SCOUT COOKIES ON DIET", New York Post, January 24, 2009
  8. ^ "Bureaucracy Eats Girl Scout Cookie Profits -- Some Volunteers Complain That Troops Get Only Crumbs". Wall Street Journal in Seattle Times. May 13, 1993. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930513&slug=1701067. Retrieved 2009-01-06. "Even the most dogged cookie salesgirls don't generate much money for their troops. Kathleen's pluck will earn her a stuffed toy, a T-shirt and a badge for her uniform. But only $67 of her sales will land in Troop 265's treasury, where there isn't enough money to buy all the badges the girls earned this year." 
  9. ^ a b Andy Rooney, "Deconstructing The Girl Scout Cookie: Andy Rooney Tackles A Tasty Task", CBS News (60 Minutes), March 26, 2007
  10. ^ "Michigan Teen Sells 17,328 Boxes of Girl Scout Cookies", retrieved May 14, 2008
  11. ^ Catherine Pritchard, "Only two places make Girl Scout cookies", Fayetteville Observer, February 29, 2008
  12. ^ Little Brownie Bakers cookie varieties, retrieved March 19, 2008
  13. ^ ABC Bakers Girl Scout cookie varieties, retrieved March 19, 2008
  14. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions: Girl Scout Cookies", Girl Scouts of the USA, retrieved February 18, 2009
  15. ^ Scout News, LLC (2005). "Eat Lots of Girl Scout Cookies? Be Prepared to Gain Weight". http://www.drkoop.com/newsdetail/93/1505892.html. Retrieved 2006-03-14. 
  16. ^ "Statement from GSUSA CEO Kathy Cloninger: Girl Scout Cookies Now Have Zero Trans Fats; Still Recommends Moderation for All Treats", November 13, 2006, retrieved March 19, 2008
  17. ^ Frequently Asked Questions: Girl Scout Cookies

[edit] External links

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