Help a Girl Scout Out!

[lizzywednesday]

While DD's council's cookie sale ended on 3/15, just ahead of the school closures and stay-at-home orders from Trenton, there are thousands of Girl Scouts whose cookie sales have been interrupted or canceled because of the threat of COVID-19.

Girl Scouts of the USA has set up a program called "Cookie Care" to help those Scouts and Councils earn money.

If you've got a few extra bucks, you can support girls through this program here:

https://www.girlscouts.org/en/cookie-care.html

[ang79]

If you want cookies or want to donate cookies, I would suggest contacting your local council to be put in touch with troops that have excess cookies to sell. Buying online offers financial support but does not help the troops get rid of inventory they have (those cookies are shipped from somewhere else). Girl Scouts in my area got their cookies on March 7 and booths started March 13. We were told that weekend during booths that we should stop doing booths. Both of my daughter's troops managed to get in two short booths Friday night and Saturday morning, but they still had a ton of cookies left over. With the school closures and orders to stay home, these boxes were just sitting in my dining room, so I ended up posting on Next Door and said if people paid online I would deliver donated cookies to local hospital employees. In two days we got 60 boxes donated that I delivered to two hospitals yesterday, people were very generous! And many also bought cookies (they paid online, I delivered and left at front doors). It took lots of running around on my part but I'm glad that we were able to sell/donate most of our stash so that we don't have that financial burden hanging over our heads.

[jgenie]

Thanks for sharing! I ordered a few!!

[Percycat]

If you want cookies or want to donate cookies, I would suggest contacting your local council to be put in touch with troops that have excess cookies to sell. Buying online offers financial support but does not help the troops get rid of inventory they have (those cookies are shipped from somewhere else).

My troop cancelled its last two booths at the beginning of Covid concerns in our area. We have 170 cookies in inventory. I assumed we would have a booth when things are back to normal, but I love the idea of encouraging donations. We aren't able to use venmo/paypal in our council and we are 'stay-in-place.' My girls are meeting tomorrow via zoom, so we will have to see if we come up with ideas to make this work.

Great job on helping your troop sell remaining inventory and helping your community.

[ang79]

My troop cancelled its last two booths at the beginning of Covid concerns in our area. We have 170 cookies in inventory. I assumed we would have a booth when things are back to normal, but I love the idea of encouraging donations. We aren't able to use venmo/paypal in our council and we are 'stay-in-place.' My girls are meeting tomorrow via zoom, so we will have to see if we come up with ideas to make this work.

Great job on helping your troop sell remaining inventory and helping your community.

I had customers purchase through our digital cookie site and choose girl delivery. Would that be an option for you?


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[lizzywednesday]

If you want cookies or want to donate cookies, I would suggest contacting your local council to be put in touch with troops that have excess cookies to sell. Buying online offers financial support but does not help the troops get rid of inventory they have (those cookies are shipped from somewhere else). Girl Scouts in my area got their cookies on March 7 and booths started March 13. We were told that weekend during booths that we should stop doing booths. Both of my daughter's troops managed to get in two short booths Friday night and Saturday morning, but they still had a ton of cookies left over. With the school closures and orders to stay home, these boxes were just sitting in my dining room, so I ended up posting on Next Door and said if people paid online I would deliver donated cookies to local hospital employees. In two days we got 60 boxes donated that I delivered to two hospitals yesterday, people were very generous! And many also bought cookies (they paid online, I delivered and left at front doors). It took lots of running around on my part but I'm glad that we were able to sell/donate most of our stash so that we don't have that financial burden hanging over our heads.

Our Council's sale ended 3/15, but the two NJ Councils who sell Little Brownie Bakers cookies received theirs roughly 3/7 and had to cut things short because of the executive orders from Trenton. They've been in my thoughts even as our final ACH Withdrawal happened on Friday (3/27).

I actually ended up shuffling leftover cookies (I have never had leftover cookies before) between my two troop numbers - I transferred the left-over cookies from my higher-earning troop to my lower-earning one, wrote a check from the higher-earning troop to the lower-earning troop to cover all the leftovers, distributed the total packages among "Actively Selling" girls in the lower-earning troop ("actively selling" meant the girls had (1) sold independently and/or (2) signed up to sell at booths) ... and then I split up the physical boxes to be delivered to the local food bank and the two elementary schools where my Scouts are students.

It'll probably vary from Council to Council, but it was my understanding that GSUSA was working with Councils everywhere to ensure that no troops were on the hook financially for those physical cookies. Of course, with an emergency rollout like this, you can't ever be sure that this is how it trickles down!

I'm glad that you were able to get your cookies out; it's stressful enough without the added worry of getting sick.

[lizzywednesday]

I had customers purchase through our digital cookie site and choose girl delivery. Would that be an option for you?

That should be your best bet, whether you use DigitalCookie or SmartCookies.

I had parents using SmartCookies, especially if their order was going to be for more than $200 worth of cookies. (Our maximum collection report is $200 per family.) I never had to handle money, the kid earned their sales, and I never had to worry about getting to the bank. Win-win-win.

[ahisma]

We got an email from a neighbor whose friend's child was selling. We ordered / paid digitally and they were dropped on our porch. We ordered more than we normally would have and were grateful for the opportunity.

[Percycat]

I had customers purchase through our digital cookie site and choose girl delivery. Would that be an option for you?


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I'm not sure. I am going to check into that as an option. Our cookie season has officially ended and final payment to council was last week. I'm not sure if digital cookie is still available to us. We had a plan (one of our booths was going to be at a senior center where our robotics team practices ad the other was at a VFW fish fry where we also serve with clearing tables)....the plan just fell through. The cookies are with our cookie manager and I don't want to piecemeal sales and create a lot of extra work for her. Fortunately, our troop had funds in reserve and we could make our payment. I am going to explore donations... otherwise, we will have our senior center booth when stay-in-place is lifted and explore other options. People may want cookies again when we are finally able to out and about. ; )

[ang79]

I'm not sure. I am going to check into that as an option. Our cookie season has officially ended and final payment to council was last week. I'm not sure if digital cookie is still available to us. We had a plan (one of our booths was going to be at a senior center where our robotics team practices ad the other was at a VFW fish fry where we also serve with clearing tables)....the plan just fell through. The cookies are with our cookie manager and I don't want to piecemeal sales and create a lot of extra work for her. Fortunately, our troop had funds in reserve and we could make our payment. I am going to explore donations... otherwise, we will have our senior center booth when stay-in-place is lifted and explore other options. People may want cookies again when we are finally able to out and about. ; )

Leaders asked our council to re-open use of the Girl Delivery option in Digital Cookie once our booths were closed down. Our council also extended our sales time to give troops enough time to sell inventory they have on hand. I think many people are hoping booths will be able to happen later in April, but I'm not so sure about that with as much as cases are increasing here daily. I've heard of some councils taking unsold boxes back so that troops weren't responsible to pay for them, but my council has not said anything about that yet. Good luck, I know how stressful having all of those cookies can be! Its bad enough that the activities we wanted to use the cookie money on may be canceled now, but the added financial stress to the troop's account was weighing a lot on me too.