Craving Girl Scout Cookies?
Are you hungry for Girl Scout cookies?
If you haven’t stashed boxes in your freezer, you’ll be glad to know that now through December 7 is cookie season for the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland. Anne Arundel County is part of that Council, as are Baltimore City and County and Howard County.
You folks in Calvert and Prince George’ counties, as well as in Montgomery County and Virginia, whose Girl Scouts are part of the Nation’s Capital Council, have to wait until spring for their cookie sale. Unless you have well-placed friends.
Girl Scouts, we discovered as the appearance of an in-office order form whetted our appetites, have a lot in common with an octopus. They’re a big organization with a strong central brain managing many arms. Nationally, $800 million worth of cookies — over 200 million boxes — are sold each year, funding local activities to “power new, unique and amazing experiences for girls — experiences that broaden their worlds, help them learn essential life skills, and prepare them to practice a lifetime of leadership,” according to the Girl Scout webpage.
Troops typically keep 10 to 15 percent of their earnings, with about 50 percent going to their Council and the remainder to the manufacturer. So each box of cookies you buy earns 50 cents (60 cents for gluten-free) for its seller’s troop to spend on troop materials, trips and programs.
Cookie manager for Southern Anne Arundel County is Syndy Kucner, whose order topped 2,100 cases in nine varieties for 31 troops. Each troop has its own cookie mom, who — like Bay Weekly staffer Susan Nolan — satisfies your craving for Thin Mints, Shortbreads and Peanut Butter Patties — plus an annual selection of some 28 Girl Scout cookie varieties. Central Maryland Council cookies sell for $4 a box, or $5 for gluten-free Trios. This year two commercial bakeries — ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers — are the national Girl Scout licensees.
As a cookie mom, Nolan’s job is ordering for Troop 1804. That’s preorders, from order sheets such as the one that appeared at Bay Weekly, and direct sales at popular places. Troop 1804 has picked a very popular place this year: the Southern High School polling place on Election Day.
A cookie mom’s next job is pickup. For Nolan’s troop, the cookie depot is Londontown Community Center in Edgewater, where big trucks filled with cookies pull up and unload.
“As a new cookie mom,” Nolan admits, “I didn’t order enough and will have to make a run to the cookie warehouse to get more.”
The Daisies, Brownies, Juniors and Cadets in Troop 1804 are under no pressure to sell.
“It’s purely voluntary in our troop,” Nolan says.
For Nolan’s nine-year-old Brownie daughter, Elizabeth, selling is a pleasure.
“Selling cookies is fun, and we make money for our troop,” Elizabeth says. “I like getting people to try the new flavors.”
This year that’s S’Mores, fashioned after the traditional campfire treat with graham cracker, marshmallow and chocolate.
I’ve tasted S’Mores, and I’m betting they’ll offer some stiff competition to the enormously popular Thin Mints, which account for about 20 percent of Girl Scout cookie sales nationwide.