Just as we’re trying to shed those extra pounds that we put on during the holiday season, Girl Scouts soon will be tempting us with their iconic cookies.
The annual ritual of Girl Scouts hitting the streets to peddle bestseller Thin Mints and other goodies kicks off January 15 in the Austin area. The Central Texas region of the Girl Scouts expects to raise more than $8 million from this year’s 39-day cookie campaign, which ends February 22. Each box sells for $4.
To find out where Girl Scout cookies are available in your neighborhood, use the organization’s online “Find Cookies” function. You even can download a cookie-finding app for your smartphone. Of course, you’re bound to spot a cookie-selling girl at Walmart or HEB, or you’re bound to be hit up by a coworker or relative who’s the parent of a Girl Scout.
The Central Texas region of the Girl Scouts expects to raise more than $8 million from this year’s 39-day cookie campaign, which ends February 22.
This year, Girl Scouts will be promoting six kinds of cookies, including a flavor that was introduced in 2012. The organization describes the relatively new Savannah Smiles cookie as a “zesty, crispy, powder sugar-coated lemon cookie that’s bound to become a classic.”
For the record, five of the Savannah Smiles cookies pack 140 calories and 5 grams of fat. Each box of Savannah Smiles contains 28 cookies.
Other cookies on this year’s plate are:
- Thin Mints — 160 calories and 7 grams of fat for four cookies
- Tagalongs — 140 calories and 9 grams of fat for two cookies
- Samoas (known to some as Caramel deLites) — 150 calories and 8 grams of fat for two cookies
- Do-si-dos — 160 calories and 7 grams of fat for three cookies
- Trefoils — 160 calories and 7 grams of fat for five cookies
Little Brownie Bakers, owned by cereal giant Kellogg, makes the Girl Scout cookies being sold in Central Texas.
Last year, more than $8.7 million went into the Girl Scout cookie jar from sales in a 46-county region that includes Austin, Bryan/College Station, Killeen, Temple and Waco. The average Girl Scout in the region sold 187 boxes of cookies in 2013.
Girl Scouts annually hawk almost 200 million boxes of cookies across the United States, garnering about $790 million in revenue.
“While cookie sales are our biggest fundraising event of the year, the main goal is to teach our girls very important life skills that will ultimately help them become independent and empowered women,” said Lucia Weinmeister, a local Girl Scouts spokeswoman. “This is the true message we are trying to let the community know: This program is truly life-changing for our girls.”
Girl Scouts cookies are back!
