The coronavirus has caused Girl Scouts of Alaska cookie sales to collapse in the state, and the federal government has stepped in with a Paycheck Protection Program loan.
Since the Girl Scouts cannot go door-to-door peddling their Thin Mints and Samoas, some 144,000 boxes of unsold cookies are languishing in garages of Girl Scout parents, while their daughters are working on their new COVID-19 merit badge for hygiene, the Anchorage Daily News reports.
Instead of their normal six-week selling season, the Girl Scouts had to cut back to just three weeks, meaning folks with a craving for S'mores, Lemon-Ups, and Tagalongs had to hustle to satisfy their sweet tooths before the state-ordered shutdown in Alaska.
"It was frenzied shopping, and people were hoarding cookies like they were toilet paper," Leslie Ridle, who leads one of two Girl Scouts groups, said.
Ridle told CBS News the cookies are the "ultimate comfort food," and are craved by Alaskans coping with the coronavirus, but now they cannot get them, which cut funds for camps and scholarships the Girl Scouts provide for their 3,500 girls and 20 employees.
"It's our bridge to keep things going," Ridle said. "I'm hearing from lots of families, 'When am I getting these out of my living rooms?'"
ConocoPhillips Co., GCI LLC, and First National Bank Alaska made big cookie orders to help the Girl Scouts.
"I'm confident that once the economy gets up and going, our girls can get back to selling," Ridle said.
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