Girl Scout cookies make a great social distancing snack, and troops across Central New York have thousands of boxes of cookies on hand. The Cicero-North Syracuse scouts are asking for the community’s to give back to essential workers.

“They’re working very hard because of the coronavirus and they deserve a break,” said Ella, who is a member of Troop 10375. She and her fellow Girl Scouts came up with a creative solution to get rid of leftover cookies.

“Our service unit decided it would be a good idea to have an inter-service unit competition to see which troop could raise the most money to give to hospitals, front line COVID responders, things like that,” said Girl Scout Troop leader Caroline Lee. 

Lee still has 13 cases of cookies in her dining room. The cookie leader has 1,000 boxes in her living room. The girls had to cancel three weekends of cookie booths because of the coronavirus.

“They’re like super disappointed,” said Lee. “Every day when we were supposed to have a cookie booth Lilliana is like ‘well there’s another day when we were supposed to sell cookies.’ And I think we’re at the point now where they realize we’re not going back out to sell cookies.”

Leaders want the girls to know it’s not their fault they can’t sell cookies in the community, and scouts are making the best of the unfortunate situation.

“That I’m really happy to donate Girl Scout cookies to people who have been working really hard and staying alive because of the coronavirus,” Ella said.

If you want to donate cookies to healthcare workers, or buy cookies for yourself, visit the Girl Scout’s website here. Cookie season has been extended through May.