TULSA, Okla. — Just when everyone was excited about getting their Girl Scout cookie fix, we’ve learned there’s a shortage this year.
The Girl Scouts cookie season normally goes until spring break but they tell me their cookie season may have to end a few weeks early because of the cookie shortage.
While they’d rather not have to deal with this, leaders tell me it’s become an opportunity for Girl Scouts to put the skills their learning to the test.
The Girl Scouts have five skills they focus on: goal setting, money management, people skills, business ethics and decision making.
With a shortage of cookies, Girl Scouts are learning how to "think creatively and solve problems."
“My daughter in particular she pushes 'hey this is the cookie that is my favorite' and that will change week to week depending on what she has an oversupply on,” Ashley Fernandez, 7054 troop leader, said.
She says the scouts are also learning to work together.
“Troops are even coming together saying we don’t need these cookies if another troop needs them," Fernandez said."Or I’ve seen troops saying 'hey we’ve already reached our troop goal to make budget for our coming year, we’ve got enough money to everything so we’re going to give all of our cookies to troops that still need to reach their goals.'"
The shortage isn’t something they expected when they first started selling cookies just a few weeks ago.
“We got a great selection of cookies at the beginning of our sale but as we have tried to place reorders, we haven’t been able to get everything that we’ve wanted,” Celeste Franklin, director of product programs, said.
“Knowing that we were able to get our full supply at the beginning kind of felt like maybe it would miss us and maybe things were taking a turn for the better," Fernandez said. "Never in a million years did I figure cookies would be the shortage of anything because everyone likes sugary treats so I figured that they would be full of force.”
As with everything right now, a labor shortage and supply chain issues are to blame.
“We feel like a lot of troops are going to kind of run out of their cookies by the end of this weekend and we normally go through spring break," Franklin said."There will probably still be a few troops that still have cookies and some of those troops that are working really hard to meet their big goals.”
The scouts depend on the sale of the cookies to help pay for camp.
Franklin says they are looking for ways to help the girls who might be struggling to meet their goals due to the shortage.
Girl Scout leaders also ask that you have grace with the girls if they don’t have the cookies you want since the shortage is out of their control.
If you can’t find your favorite cookie in-person, you can try to order them online hereor by texting COOKIES to 59618.
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