On a cold Saturday morning at the Centre Pointe Village shopping center, an army of volunteers organized and distributed pallets of cookies to various Girl Scout parents as cookie season officially got under way.
The Santa Clarita Valley mega drop is the first distribution of cookies to various troops, and many will stock up once their initial order has sold. The cookie drop will see more than 133,956 packages of cookies distributed to more than 160 Girl Scout Troops, according to Keri Menne, product program manager for the Santa Clarita mega drop.
This year, with the help of Affordable Quality Moving and Storage, 590 volunteers helped make sure the distribution process was safe and organized. Volunteers and the delivery agent begin staging and unloading cookies at 3 a.m.; then, packages were ready to be distributed by 7 a.m.
“This is where all the troops get their starting inventory order when the cookie program begins,” Menne said. “Go day is tomorrow, so all the troops will be coming to pick up all the product that the girls in their troop are selling.”
Cars lined up and picked up boxes from different pickup stations based on the cookie flavors they ordered.
More than 4 million cookies were to be distributed to nearly 1,200 Girl Scouts in the Santa Clarita Valley, according to Menne.
“That’s just the starting inventory order. Later, troops will come in and pick up more product as they sell them,” Menne said.
The SCV Girl Scout troops have been prepping, staging and distributing cookies for over 10 years for the greater Los Angeles area. The mega drops are the eve before troops begin to sell, according to Menne.
“The mega drop event gets people really excited about the start of the program, and it’s just amazing to see everybody come and work together to make this event happen,” Menne said.
Camee Harvey is a volunteer of the mega drop and has volunteered for over a decade. She helps because of the enjoyment of meeting hundreds of Girl Scouts and troop leaders.
“I love volunteering and seeing all the girls selling cookies, and the troops get very excited to sell cookies,” Harvey said. “It’s fun volunteering at the mega drop.”
The cookie fundraising program was created by Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low, who sold sugar cookies. The aim was to teach young Scouts the importance of financial literacy and self-reliance to fund their activities and trips.
Scouts will learn goal-setting, decision-making, money management, business ethics and people skills as they participate in the program. Additionally, there are 27 badges Girl Scouts can earn by participating in the program.
Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles purchases its cookies from Little Brownie Bakers, one of
two licensed Girl Scout cookie bakers. This year, local troops will be stocked with eight varieties of cookies.
Harvey and Menne both said they value the cookie program because of the opportunity to gain financial literacy to fund their events.
“The troops can tell people why they’re selling cookies and what they’re raising the money for, and what their goals are,” Menne said. “So yeah, the Scouts definitely learn a lot.”
You can download the free Cookie Finder mobile app to locate a booth sale by ZIP code or visit www.girlscoutsla.org/cookies.
