Cookie-selling season for thousands of Girl Scouts in the Central Valley kicked off this week with some changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the traditional Girl Scouts booths will be up and running in February, Girl Scouts of Central California South – which covers Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera and Tulare Counties – the nearly 11,000 Girl Scouts are exploring new ways to sell.
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“We are reimagining this cookie season because we are still in the pandemic, and safety absolutely comes first for our girls,” said Jody Hudson, Director of Development with the local Girl Scouts organization.
The pandemic has driven the organization to sell online. Girl Scouts can set up their own online stores to allow people to order cookies with contactless delivery.
Girl Scouts announced a new partnership with Grubhub to facilitate the deliveries from online orders.
People can purchase cookies through the local Girl Scouts website.
The Girl Scouts are also doing bringing back the Cookie Donor Buyout Program for the second consecutive year.
With the program, local businesses and organizations can buy out a troop’s whole stock of cookies.
Girl Scouts offer three tiers in the program: $500, $1,000 and $1,500. The organization encourages businesses to donate the cookies to frontline workers or charities if they do not want to keep the whole stock.
The Girl Scouts will have the cookies in hand to go door-to-door on Feb. 7, and the classic booths will start on Feb. 13. The cookie selling season ends on March 21.
