Once this cold spell passes us by, you will see Girl Scouts out and about, selling their delicious cookies. Yes, it’s cookie season and Nebraska Girl Scouts have nine varieties for you to choose from. Cookies are $4 a package, except the Gluten-free Caramel Chocolate Chip, they run $5 a bag. This entrepreneurial tradition has been a part of Girl Scout history for over 100 years.
The very first cookie sale began in 1917, when the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Okla. baked cookies in their own kitchens and sold them in their school cafeteria for a service project. Five years later, a Girl Scout publication called The American Girl, featured an article by Florence E. Neil.
Ms. Neil was a local director in Chicago and published the cookie recipe that had been shared to the council’s 2000 Girl Scout members. She had estimated that the cost of 6-7 dozen cookies, using this recipe was less than 36 cents. Girls sold a dozen cookies at that time for about 30 cents! Throughout the 1920s, girls across the county continued to bake simple sugar cookies, packaged them in wax paper bags and sold them door to door.
It wasn’t until 1934 that the Girl Scouts of Greater Philadelphia took cookie sales to the next level and started to sell commercially baked cookies. That’s when we saw different varieties being offered and simple packaging start to evolve.
Since then, there have been many cookies come and go, many goals reached and the addition of bright packaging that shows real Girl Scouts in action. The one thing that hasn’t changed is that the largest girl-led business in the world still offers a delicious, quality product right to your door. Cookies are available until March 21.