Girl Scouts prepared in crisis: They’re extending cookie sales one week
Shortly before President Donald Trump declared a national emergency Friday to deal with the coronavirus crisis, the Girl Scouts of Northern California announced that they were extending sales of Samoas, Do-si-dos, S’mores and their best-selling Thin Mints for one week.
The thought is that it’s one way the organization of 40,000 girls and teens can provide a tangible and tasty source of comfort to people in the Bay Area as they deal with quarantines, school closures, financial turmoil and fears over the global pandemic, according to spokeswoman Heather Burlew-hayden.
“This is an unprecedented event, and because we’re Girl Scouts, we plan for unprecedented events,” she said.
The sales will continue online through March 22, one week longer than the original schedule.
Information about cookie sales is available at gsnorcal.org.
This weekend was supposed to be the last that girls would be selling at booths outside Safeway, CVS and other grocery stores and pharmacies.
But Burlew-hayden said those in-person sales were rethought as concerns rose about the spread of COVID-19 into the community.
Before Trump declared a national emergency at a White House briefing Friday, the organization was leaving it up to individual troops to decide if they will sell cookies outside retailers, Burlew-hayden said.
She added that booth sales account for about 4% of the organization’s revenue from cookie sales.
But the organization also told troops they should not hold in-person sales if the public or private schools in their area had closed to protect students from COVID-19.
On Friday, school districts across the Bay Area, including Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, announced closures, so it’s likely that these guidelines affect most, if not all, Bay Area troops.
Starting Monday, tens of thousands of Bay Area students — from kindergarten to college — will not be reporting to their school campuses and instead will be turning to technology to receive their lessons.
The Girl Scouts will similarly focus on technology to continue to sell cookies in the coming week.
Burlew-hayden said the girls will have to come up with strategies to push their sales online, perhaps by using social media to engage with people in their neighborhoods and communities.
Burlew-hayden added that selling cookies has never been just about fundraising.
The Girl Scouts sell cookies as a way to develop life and social skills: how to interact with the public, manage money, do inventory, plan ahead, and think creatively and entrepreneurially.