Girl Scout Cookie Time

Purple text and a purple illustration of a whale

The Girl Scouts of America first began selling cookies in 1917, five years after the organization was founded in the United States. Initially, individual girl scouts troops baked cookies themselves as a way to fund scouting activities. Troops shared recipes by submitting them for publication in The American Girl, the official Girl Scouts magazine. The national Girl Scout organization began selling commercially baked cookies in 1936. Flavors have evolved over time, but cookies have been sold by the Girl Scouts ever since, halting only for World World II when food rations made cookie sales impossible. By the late 1970s, the Girl Scouts streamlined cookie production and designed uniform packaging for all the cookie varieties sold by the scouts. Girl Scout Cookies are sold only once a year—at the same time for all scout troops—and the phrase “Girl Scout Cookie Time” on this button is a reference to the popular annual cookie sales event.