Montgomery County Is About to Get a Shipment of Something That Will Delight Some, Challenge Others

A large shipment is scheduled to arrive soon at a service center in Miquon. Its delivery will delight area sweets fans but perhaps represent a challenge to residents who resolved to peel pounds in 2023.

What’s being shipped? Nearly 70,000 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies, ready for sale by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania (GSEP).

This year’s annual Girl Scout Cookie effort runs from Jan. 19 to March 12. As always, proceeds in Montgomery County remain here, funding troop experiences, local programs, camps, and events. 

Nine classic flavors return for 2023, including Thin Mints, Caramel deLites, and Peanut Butter Patties.

The Caramel Chocolate Chip flavor reaches a milestone this year, celebrating a decade as a gluten-free variety. A Girl Scout herself pitched the idea behind it, lobbying for a Girl Scout Cookie that wouldn’t exacerbate her celiac disease.

Girl Scouts have been marketing cookies since 1917 when a Muskogee, Oklahoma troop handmade cookies in a high-school cafeteria.

By the 1920s, the fundraiser caught on nationally.

In the 1930s, a New York troop turned to commercially baked cookies, and that collaboration resulted in one of the drive’s signature shapes: the trefoil.

In the ensuing decades, no wars, political intrigue, or economic downturn could slow the scouts.

Even the pandemic was no insurmountable impediment; by then, sales had already migrated online.

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This retrospective on Girl Scout Cookies shows just how far the project has evolved over more than a century in the U.S.