I learned of this Baking Bites and the full article is at CBS LA. This may not be in every case, but in LA 13,200 boxes of over ordered Girl Scout Cookies, still within the expiration date, were sent to a landfill instead of donated to food banks and it is believed that this has been going on for years. The Council would over-order, hoping the Scouts would sell more than they actually do and the bakery that makes them will buy back up to 1% of all unsold cookies and the trashed cookies are then sent to the landfill.
This is not just sad as it could be donated to homeless shelters or food banks and I would think the bakeries would also be able to reap a tax benefit for the donation.
The Girl Scouts as an organization may not have known what was going on, but now that they do they should be more responsible in placing orders and as their name is attached to it, work out with the bakeries what happens to cookies returned to the bakeries. Now there may be legal/trademark issues, but those can be worked through.
As it is Girl Scout cookie season, I encourage everyone to buy a box, and not just so they won't end up in a landfill but because it can make the difference in whether a girl can afford to go to Girl Scout camp or not. I was only in Girl Scouts during my early grade school years, but I still remember the good times that I had the year I did sell enough cookies so I could go.
If you don't have girls hawking them outside your local Walmart, the Girl Scouts site has where you can type in your zipcode and a window will pop up where you can fill it out and someone from a local chapter will contact you about placing an order here.
If you need ideas on how to use up all those cookies, $5 Dinner Mom has a round up of 10 recipes that use Girl Scout Cookies:
Be a cookie monster!
Disclaimer: I was a Girl Scout long ago, but no longer have any affiliation with them, don't have any relatives currently in Girl Scouts and this is not a sponsored post - I just hate seeing things go to waste.
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