Another American staple has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic; the Girl Scouts have 15 million boxes of unsold cookies, according to CBS News.
The national lockdown to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus kept Girl Scout cookies in the box as typical in-person cookie sales were halted in 2020 for safety reasons.
"This is unfortunate but given this is a girl-driven program and the majority of cookies are sold in-person, it was to be expected," Girl Scouts spokesperson Kelly Parisi told CBS News.
Local councils and troops will feel the impact the most as they depend on cookie sales to fund programming, travel and camps. The Girl Scouts normally sell around 200 million boxes per year which is equivalent to bringing in about $800 million for the organization.
An Associated Press (AP) report says COVID may not be the only reason for the surplus.
Many troops chose not to sell cookies this year because a report said that child labor is used to make the palm oil which is in turn used to make Girl Scout cookies, according to AP.
Gina Verdibello, a New Jersey Girl Scout troop leader, told CBS News that her 21-member troop decided to boycott sales this year and instead hold a protest.
Verdibello said at least a dozen other troops that she is aware of made the decision due to the purported use of child labor in the manufacturing link to make palm oil.
"We want to sell cookies," she told CBS, "It's part of our thing, but this is putting kind of a damper on it."
The December report from the AP discovered that palm oil imported from Indonesia and Malaysia was used in a multitude of food products.
Ferrero, an Italian confectionery brand that purchased manufacturing rights from Kellogg, is one of the two major makers of Girl Scout cookies said to be using palm oil imported from Indonesia and Malaysia, according to AP.
Tens of thousands of children work alongside their parents for little to no pay in those countries with some never attending school or having citizenship, reported AP.
Individual Girl Scouts are supporting the push to stop using child labor to make the palm oil.
“I’m not just some little girl who can’t do anything about this,” Olivia Chaffin, a Girl Scout in rural Tennessee said. “Children can make change in the world. And we’re going to.”
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