RALEIGH — North Carolina Coastal Pines recently kicked off the 2021 Girl Scout Cookie Program, with some changes.
This cookie-selling season, Girl Scouts are selling in creative, socially distant and contact-free ways to keep themselves and their customers safe.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, girls are adapting their sales methods to share the “joy of Girl Scout cookies” through the largest girl-led entrepreneurship program — including taking contact-free pickup and delivery orders through a new national collaboration with Grubhub.
In Greenville, Fayetteville, Raleigh and Wilmington consumers can order Girl Scout cookies for pickup or delivery on Grubhub.com or the Grubhub app. A hands-on experience in managing e-commerce, local Girl Scouts will track and fulfill orders, manage inventory, and more, all using Grubhub’s back-end technology. Grubhub is waiving all fees for the organization to make this new delivery option feasible for sales without reducing troops’ and councils’ proceeds.
Additionally, Girl Scouts of the USA is making online cookie ordering available nationwide on Monday so consumers who don’t know a Girl Scout can still purchase cookies from a local troop for direct shipment to their homes or donation to local organizations. Customers can enter their zip code into the Girl Scout Cookie Finder to find a local troop to purchase from through the digital cookie platform.
The Girl Scout Cookie Program has long taught girls how to run a business via in-person booths, door-to-door activity, and the Digital Cookie platform online, which GSUSA launched in 2014. This year, Girl Scouts can participate in a variety of ways like in-person cookie booths following specific safety guidelines, virtual cookie booths on social media, and setting up drive-through locations to facilitate orders that ship directly to customers’ doors.
Girls of all ages are continuing to embrace their entrepreneurial spirits, stay connected to their communities and have fun by participating in the Cookie Program. Proceeds from each purchase stay local with the troop and the local council to power Girl Scouts’ essential leadership programming.
“The Girl Scout Cookie Program is a long-cherished tradition among Girl Scouts and cookie customers, and it is sure to bring moments of joy during this time of uncertainty,” said Lisa Jones, chief executive officer of GS-NCCP. “We are excited to support our girls as they learn important skills like goal setting and business ethics while earning proceeds for their troop.”
This year, Girl Scouts is also providing new materials as part of their cookie badge program to support girls as they run their cookie business online and via social media, helping them be best equipped to sell during these times.
The GS-NCCP will offer the new Toast-Yay! cookie, a French toast–inspired cookie dipped in icing. Toast-Yay! gives consumers a new way to celebrate moments of joy alongside other favorites, like Thin Mints and Caramel deLites. And though social distancing measures may keep families and friends apart, cookie customers can share joy and stay connected this season through a gift-box option that ships directly to others via the Digital Cookie platform.
The 2021 Girl Scout Cookie Program runs through March 7.