Cookie Sale History
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During the 1920's some Girl Scout councils sold home-baked cookies.
In 1936 the first nationally franchised Girl Scout Cookie Sale was held.
More than 50 baking companies have produced cookies for the sale.
The Cookie sale was discontinued during World War II to save sugar and other ingredients to help the war effort.
By the middle of the 1960's, Girl Scout Cookies represented 10 percent of all cookies made in the United States
In the 1980's, Girl Scout of the USA began supplying a standard cookie package with pictures. Each baker could provide a maximum of seven varieties of cookies for councils.
Three varieties of cookies are mandatory and five are optional.
More healthful ingredients began to be used in the 1990's.
Today, the Girl Scout Cookie Sale is the premier program-related product sale in the United States.
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Girl Scout Cookies are a familiar part of American culture. For more than 80 years, Girl Scouts, with the enthusiastic support of their families, have helped ensure the success of local Girl Scout Cookie activities. From its earliest beginnings to its current popularity, the sale of cookies has helpd Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts and Girl Scouts 11-17 have fun, develop valuable life skills, and make the world a better place by helping to support Girl Scouting in their communities. Girls are proud that their efforts provide resources for their local Girl Scout councils and for their own Girl Scout troops/groups.
EARLIEST BEGINNINGS
Girl Scout Cookies® had their earliest beginnings in the kitchens and ovens of our girl members, with mothers volunteering as technical advisers. The sale of cookies as a way to finance troop activities began as early as 1917, five years after Juliette Gordon Low started Girl Scouting in the United States. The earliest mention of a cookie sale found to date was that of the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, which baked cookies and sold them in its high school cafeteria as a service project in December 1917.
In July 1922, The American Girl magazine, published by Girl Scout national headquarters, featured an article by Florence E. Neil, a local director in Chicago, Illinois. Miss Neil provided a cookie recipe that was given to the council's 2,000 Girl Scouts. She estimated the approximate cost of ingredients for six- to seven-dozen cookies to be 26 to 36 cents. The cookies, she suggested, could be sold by troops for 25 or 30 cents per dozen.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Girl Scouts in different parts of the country continued to bake their own simple sugar cookies with their mothers. These cookies were packaged in wax paper bags, sealed with a sticker, and sold door to door for 25 to 35 cents per dozen.
TODAY
Girl Scout Cookie boxes are bold and bright and capture the spirit of Girl Scouting. Introduced in the fall of 2000, these boxes clearly show girls having fun and growing strong. The licensed bakers produce a maximum of eight varieties, including three mandatory ones (Thin Mint, Peanut Butter Sandwich, and Shortbread). All cookies are kosher.
