Springtime: Where I Crush the Souls Of Girl Scouts
According to the National Action Against Obesity the girl scouts who peddle cookies each spring get 40 to 60 cents from each box sold. Roughly ten percent of each sale. Ask any mother whose living room has been taken over by boxes of cookies, any father who’s had to drag their daughter into work with a cookie order form, if that’s worth it. The Girl Scouts of America assert that 12% to 17% of each sale goes to the troop. At $4 a box that’s between 48 cents and 68 cents per box sold.
I know that looks impressive until you scroll down and see this.
I love Girl Scouts. My Mother was a Girl Scout, her Mother was the Troop Leader, but the Girl Scouts have been setting a terrible precedent. They’re asking young girls and their mothers to endlessly solicit from friends and family without adequately compensating them. If we’re raising our girls to be strong, let’s also raise them to be clever capitalists.
Okay Jessica, but what does this have to do with a sustainable lifestyle?
Glad you asked. According the Girl Scouts of America each and every cookie variety contains partially hydrogenated oils. If you are unfamiliar with the risk associated with partially hydrogenated oils please read one of these:
Further, and most infuriating is this snippet from their website:
Q: Are any preservatives used in Girl Scout Cookies?
A: No. Girl Scout Cookies do not contain preservatives. They are all made with pure vegetable shortening, are kosher, and freeze well to extend their shelf life.
I present to you a Girl Scout cookie nutritional label.
The partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil is enhanced with TBHQ for freshness.
What is TBHQ?
If TBHQ adds freshness, isn’t that by definition a preservative?
According to the World Health Organization TBHQ caused no deaths in dogs (congratulations!) and only slight discoloration of basal cells in rats. There appears to be a positive association with lymphoma in mice, but that doesn’t seem to alarm the Girl Scouts, as they tout their cookies as preservative free!
Folks, if you want cookies, bake them or buy them, I don’t care, but if the shelf life is longer than your pet goldfish, it’s not food.
If you think your local Girl Scouts are adorable (and I do) drop $1 in the jar and leave the cookies behind. They’ll make more money that way anyhow, and you don’t even have to worry about what’s gone into your body.
A friend of mine received a decent-sized college scholarship from her local Girl Scout council after she earned her Gold award. I bet at least some of the money she got came from cookie sale profits. Maybe it didn’t directly benefit the troops who sold the cookies, but my friend is now a teacher so she’s using her education to give back to her community.
A life without Thin Mints? Not worth living!
Thought-provoking read though.
A lot of the responses have been about GS helping girls learning to be assertive, strong, building leadership ect.
However as a GS I got none of that from the boring routine meetings. I did however find that through tagging along with my mother for my brother’s Boy Scouts meetings where I learned so much more as they actually do more activities in general that don’t rely on cookie sales but practical wisdom and using what you have for the most part.
Once I came to that realization, I had my mother only send me to the GS summer camp which is where I actually learned useful things that kept my interest such as horseback riding, various crafts, ect. However even for my mom a single mother with a not so great paying job (we lived at my grandmother’s house) she saved up little by little, to send me to the camp annually without the use of selling cookies.
So whats my point? The cookies sales are not that big of a deal however I slightly agree with the author that by selling items which you know are bad for people is wrong. If GS does teach leadership and all of these great things and you’re here reading this blog on Green Parenting and Health, why haven’t used those traits you’ve learned through GS to demand healthier cookies or items to sell that does not have the negative impact it does on people?
WOW - Loved the article and totally agree.
Surprised at the angry GS moms/leaders out there(comments). “Doest thou protest too loudly?” Search your heart Moms - you know she’s right! Why not sell flowers and bulbs and get 50% of the profit? (totally at no charge to the organization). As a 25 year veteran of the non-profit fund raising arena, I can assure you there are several options that don’t include preservatives, oils and beggering a box of cookies in front of Wal-Mart for such little return…image IS changeable, especially in a world that needs to change its eating habits! Heck you could start a trend!!! Just because the world wants “sugar crack” doesn’t make it right to sell it to them - you know what it does to people - how do you justify that? Leave the “lemming following” to the other gender, ladies start a NEW trend!
Selling cookies does more than raise money. It teaches leadership, confidence, safety, respecting others, goal setting, financial management, math skills, time management, entrepeneurship, teamwork, philanthropy, etc.
Here is an excerpt from the GSUSA site about cookie sale proceeds. http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_cookies/
“All of the proceeds—every penny—from a local council’s cookie activities remains in the area where the cookies are sold. This revenue is used to benefit girls, some of it directly by remaining in the Girl Scout troop/group treasury and some of it indirectly by subsidizing the cost of providing the Girl Scout program in the local area.
“Cookie revenue” helps local councils:
Recruit and train volunteer leaders for each troop/group.
Provide the financial assistance needed to make Girl Scouting available for all girls.
Improve and maintain camp and other activity sites.
Keep event/camp fees for all members to a minimum.
Sponsor special events and projects.
Each local council sets the price per box, based on its needs and its knowledge of its local market. The price per box, therefore, may vary from one location to another and from one year to the next. Today’s prices reflect both the current cost of purchasing cookies from a licensed baker and the realities of providing Girl Scout activities in an ever-changing economic environment.”
I can’t believe that with all that is going on in the world today you have to pick Girl Scouts.
I am 55 years old. I was a girl member for eight years. It was cookies (okay with help from my dad) that I was able to attend camp every summer. This alone can change a life of a girl, which in turn can change the lives of many. It takes them out of bad neighborhoods. It shows them how life can be. It gives them something to aspire to. And I did. I took a few years off to be a crazy teen and then get married. I was recruited when my daughter was entering kindergarten and have been a member ever since. I am now a lifetime member. There is no other organization that I would grace with my membership.
If the government would follow our promise and law we would be living in a far better world.
As far as where the money goes. It goes to pay salaries and benefits, legal and other consultants, computer techs who all support us volunteers. GSUSA carries an insurance policy that covers all members. It also pays for camp upkeep, new roofs, tents, program materials, any people or materials that any corporation would employ. In other words: lots of behind the scenes things that benefit girls.
The $.60-$.75 that the troop gets is a small portion but understand that money is also being spent to support a multifaceted Girl Scout program.
Would you rather get nothing for your money like when you put money in a cheerleader or baseball player’s can at the supermarket doors? Among the many things Girl Scouts teaches is that the consumer must get something for their money. Before a sale Girl Scouts learn about budgeting, they learn about their product, and about marketing skills. What does it teach a girl to go buy candy bars at BJs and turn around and sell them for more? What life skill does it teach a child when he/she is put in front of a store with a can to beg for money?
We should be complaining about where the profit goes and what happens to our country when things are made in China. Where is our civic pride? We should complain when our taxes are continually spent on bailing out companies. I’ll bet that a former or present Girl Scout does not run any of those companies.
For those who continue to see the small picture, just think, if these girls are being taken advantage of they will be living their motto “Be Prepared”. They will be prepared if things don’t change, to live in this country.
I like to think that we are teaching so much more and these young women will be prepared to change the world.
Besides when I want something good to eat to sooth the soul, I’ll eat a Girl Scout cookie.
Yep, I hate Girl Scout cookies. As someone with several health issues not helped by GS cookies or booth sales, I’m still out there with the girls from our troop selling those things so they aren’t in my house for very long. Some of my girls take to sales like ducks to water. Some cling to Mom, especially the younger ones, until someone finally says “Yes, I’d like to buy some Girl Scout cookies.” Those girls warm up, come out of their shell and start talking about their GS experience and what we are planning on doing with the money. Our troop has chosen 4 (yes, FOUR) service projects to fund with the money we’ve earned. And, we’re going to camp, bowling, and more with the rest of the money. Plus, these families no longer pay for girl re-registration. We do still charge troop dues of 50 cents per meeting that the girls are expected to earn. So, are cookie sales worth the pittance (70 cents) we receive for each box? You bet!
When I was a Girl Scout, my troop was the only troop in Tx that REFUSED to sell the cookies. Back then, we got 10 cents per box. It’s a lot of work. And that’s a pretty small payback.
We elected to do our own, more interesting fundraising. Something that allowed us to keep more of the money.
We usually hawked drinks at the rodeo. Not exactly girlie, but effective.
Nevertheless, those chocolate mints are still to die for, even if they might cause leukemia.
I heart their thin mints but the don’t make me thin. I might buy the cookies still and no way I am reading all that hate mail you got from the troop leaders. I think your post has convinced me to drop a dollar or two in their jar. What do you think about the Boy Scouts and their popcorn?
Making a donation is a good idea. I do that will all the (zillions of) school fundraising kids that hit our front door. Would love to contribute, but don’t need the stuff and you don’t need to share my money with a company selling over-priced goods, preservatives or no preservatives.
Howevah . . .
Girl Scout cookies are like a national tradition or something. Folks will buy cookies from cute girls rather than just handing them the bucks.