Girl Scout offers new ways to buy cookies this year
Feb. 26—It's that time of year again.
Donning masks and their troop vests, Girl Scouts Kenzie and Hayden Johnson ran a cookie booth at Fleet Farm on Sunday. They had a bottle of hand sanitizer ready for visitors to use before picking out a box of Tagalongs, Thin Mints and other selections for their customers.
Along with the booths and door-to-door sales, Girl Scouts is offering new ways for people to buy cookies this year because of the pandemic.
Boxes of cookies can be bought online this season. Local Girl Scout members have online accounts that they can share with people in the community through an app. These accounts allow people to buy cookies and have them delivered to their home without any in-person interaction.
Boxes can also be purchased online and delivered by the girls with contactless curbside pickup.
Kenzie and Hayden have using texting and social media to share the app with friends and family.
Cookies can also be purchased this year through the online delivery service Grubhub.
Girls still have the option to sell cookies in person and cookie booths will be at local businesses during weekends. Families can choose how they sell cookies this year based on their level of comfort.
Usually members of a troop will work at a cookie booth together. Because of the pandemic, girls are working the booths alone this year or with siblings.
Hayden has been in Girl Scouts for eight years and said that it's different selling cookies this year, even selling door to door because she now gives people a QR code they can scan to order cookies instead of having them fill out information on a sheet.
Amanda Diehm, a troop leader and service unit manager for the scouts, said the girls are finding creative ways to sell cookies during this time and are still learning valuable business and people skills.
Hayden and Kenzie were part way through the Girl Scout cookie season when the pandemic hit last year. They had to stop selling and weren't able to meet their sale goals. The girls ended up donating the remainder of their cookies.
Despite the early end to cookie season, Girl Scouts moved online and began offering online resources and tools for girls to use at home. They have been holding virtual events, although some local troops have returned to meeting in person, with distancing and mask requirements.
"Girl Scouts has been resilient since the start of the pandemic," Diehm said.
If parents are interested in signing their daughter up for Girl Scouts, Diehm encourages people to visit the Mankato Girl Scout office, which is open Tuesday afternoons, or visit the River Valley Girl Scouts website.
