It's cookie time!

Have you supported your local Girl Scouts yet?

cookies by Pippaloo

The first Girl Scout cookie sales was by the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma in December 1917. In 1922, the Girl Scout magazine The American Girl suggested cookie sales as a fund-raiser and provided recipes. In 1933, Girl Scouts in Philadelphia organized the first official sale, selling homemade cookies at the windows of local utility companies.

The first Girl Scout cookie recipe was a sugar cookie. In 1936 the national organization began licensing commercial bakers to produce cookies.

According to my good friend Molly McIntire, Girl Scouts sold calendars during World War II in addition to cookies, because of shortages of flour, sugar, and butter. Customers were limited to two boxes during some war years. By 1943 Girl Scouts also collected fat in cans with Girl Scout labels to aid the war effort and sold War Bonds at no profit.

Girls who participate can earn prizes for their efforts. There are also unit incentives if the unit as a whole does well. As of 2007, sales were estimated at about 200 million boxes per year.

That's a lot of cookie dough.

Cookies will be on sale in Arizona through March 11.