Destruction of unsold Girl Scout cookies sparks debate in California

Girl Scouts sell cookies in New York City, February 8, 2013. / Getty Images

RIVERSIDE, Ca.The sale of Girl Scout cookies is a beloved annual event, but what happens to the unsold treats after the sales are over?

Many of them are destroyed.

A video report released Thursday by CBS Los Angeles shows more than 13,000 boxes of leftover Girl Scout cookies being trashed, leading some to question why the perfectly fine treats were not donated to people in need.

The footage shows a tractor crushing thousands of boxes of the beloved treats in a Riverside, Calilf., warehouse last May. A worker can be heard in the background cheering, "Goodbye, Girl Scout cookies!"

Sources told CBS LA that this is not an isolated case -- that leftover cookies have been headed to the landfill, well before their expiration date, for years.

Why are they destroyed instead of donated?

Pastor Cathy Purden of the Rock of the Valley Church in Van Nuys said, "That's something those children could have had, cookies."

Purden's congregation relies on food donations to feed 50-60 people a week and, Purden says, they would have gladly accepted the cookies. "You stop and think about how many little children would be excited if you gave them a box of Girl Scout cookies. I would be excited. I buy them."

CBS Los Angeles traced the trashed cookies to the San Gorgonio Council of the Girl Scouts in Redlands, Calif. When questioned about the video, Chuck MacKinnon, the vice president of the council, denied knowing anything about it.

"We didn't know that was the way they were being disposed of, " MacKinnon said. "To look at it, it's a waste of food."

He said it is their supplier, ABC Bakery, that was responsible. The Scouts ordered too many boxes, he explained, but are allowed to return one percent of the unsold cookies back to the bakery without paying for them.

That one percent translates to eleven hundred cases -- 13,200 boxes of cookies in all.

When asked why no one purchased and donated the 1,100 cases, MacKinnon admitted, "We certainly could have."

The Richmond, Va.-based ABC Bakery declined to comment on the story, but a spokesperson for Girl Scout headquarters in New York said there is no national policy on what to do with unsold cookies.

"It's a shame what happened in Riverside," said Michelle Tompkins of Girl Scouts of the USA, "but food is wasted all the time."

MacKinnon said that the cookie-trashing will not be repeated and vowed that the Council would no longer order more than they could sell.

The San Gorgonio Council also wants to make it clear they often donate unsold cookies -- more than 100,000 boxes last year alone.

[skhpcola]

"...are allowed to return one percent of the unsold cookies back to the bakery without paying for them.

That one percent translates to eleven hundred cases -- 13,200 boxes of cookies in all."

If 13,200 boxes is 1% of the unsold total, then 100*13,200 would represent the total number of unsold boxes. If the chapter didn't sell 1.3 million boxes of cookies, somebody needs to be fired. Either that, or the author of this piece is innumerate and doesn't understand 4th-grade math concepts.

[bowlan2112]

giving them away goes against the liberal ways.

[FatManChew909]

No this is their exact M.O. Tell the people who work hard why they're not giving stuff away and when they give in the people who receive the free stuff will sue because it's not fresh.

[busseja]

CBS could have bought the cookies. The greedy pastor could have bought the cookies, the news caster could have bought the cookies and given them away. Did they, Well, hell no! They complain about the generosity of others while playing pocket pool themselves Labeling the Girl Scouts greedy seems misplaced. The "help groups and churches" complaining they did not get something for free (or a prayer) are the greedy ones. Always looking for a hand-out never offering a hand seems to be the motto of those groups and those they serve. gimme gimme gimme... enough already. Wash my windows, paint my garage, clean a street of graffiti and then we'll talk. Otherwise, shut up.

[GrlSctLdr_PsyD]

Very good points! They also could have taken them for a discounted price for that matter, but then again, they probably still would decline. The only donation of the free stuff should go to deployed soldiers. I reside in Richmond, VA and a few things have been said about the decisions made by the ABC Bakery tossing food over the years. They take risks of being sued if there is a later recall and they have received much flack for donating sugary, starchy foods. Those are not true facts, just comments I have heard over the years, and they make some sense.

[Igautt_Akleu]

Send them to Syria - because if you're going to get blown up, you might as well have a cookie in your mouth.

[JG1114]

I think first we have to ask Michelle Obama if it's okay to give away cookies, don't we? Maybe we can give one cookie to each person. She might be okay with that.

[retiredgustav]

You can't ask the republicans they are too trying to steal them.

[Ben_Franklin1776]

I guess we will have to ask her after she gets back from yet another multimillion dollar vacation. Nothing like having an ignorant harridan berate you over what you eat and what you earn while she gallivants around the world eating as she pleases --- all at our expense.

Poor RETIREDGUSTAV couldn't even think of a rational response. Taxes are theft. The Republicans want less of them. How he arrives at Republicans stealing anything as part of their governing philosophy is beyond knowing. It just shows how easily people are brainwashed and how illogical they can be. But then if they thought for themselves in a rational manner they wouldn't be leftists.

[nn55nn]

So, we are calling Girl Scout cookies food?
I suppose since it is superior to Twinkies?
seriously, these cookies are not healthy.
If it's going to be called food, at best it's JUNK food !

[Nayners24]

I wonder if you realize your comment is ridiculous. Whether the cookies are healthy or not isn't the issue. I suggest that you look up the definition of "food". It would benefit you to tighten up your writing skills because they are, well, awful.

[tmittelstaed]

Many if not most of the food banks in the country get the majority of their food from donated "seconds" The poster claiming the supermarkets throw food out is wrong. All the supermarkets care about is that expired food does not end up donated then 'laundered' to cut-rate and corner store supermarkets which sell older food. The food pantries and food banks audit their books and can assure the supermarkets that expired and donated food isn't sold.

The actual fact of the matter is that "food drives" that are held periodically by food banks are nothing more than advertising, they do not create a guarenteed supply of food for these places and are only held as "feel good" exercises.

I would bet ABC bakery donates overstocks to food banks but most food banks have limited space and want to use their space for inventorying higher nutrition foods, not junk foods high in sugar. ABC probably already called the food bank they normally use to dispose of this stuff and that bank didn't want to put the shelf space into use for the cookies. Remember that ABC has to pay for space in their dumpsters to throw it away and they have to pay for employee time to throw it away, a food bank will come in and haul it off and use their own people's labor. ABC is probably not saying what food bank refused the cookies.

The big problem is the "return 1% clause". ABC is not stupid, they raise the price of ALL cookies they sell to cover the 1% expected unpaid returns. It is the Scouts that are stupid because if they renegotiated the cookie contract to eliminate the 1% they could save money with ABC. Also if the Scouts have an overage at the end of the cookie sales they should simply Ebay the overage as a single lot - a discount supermarket would jump at the chance to buy the lot. Then the Scouts get more money and they are a charity themselves it is pretty rediculous to expect them to take a monetary loss on their fundraiser and donate cookies to some other charity. They just need to manage the end of sale better.

[HistoryNote]

Excellent post.

[SteveMT2]

The wasting of food in this country is atrocious. Destroying these Girl Scout Cookies is just the tip on the iceberg. Watch the 2010 movie "Dive!" Dive! is a documentary focusing on the alarming food waste problem in the United States. All of the supermarkets in this country throw away expired food, and they will not allow people access to this nutrition. I work at a hospital, and the amount of cafeteria food discarded from this facility is disgusting. State law says that this food cannot be donated to anyone, and $8-10/hour paid employees caught taking it home will be fired on the spot.

[Spartavegas]

You think that's bad you should see all the food that is thrown away at schools everyday. It is very saddening all that waste.

[Montana5]

Should have hauled out into the Gulf of Mexico to the Carnival Triumph....Carnival would have sold them for at least $6 a box.

[kidsRgrownNow]

The cookies have no health/nutritional value whatsoever. Donating them to people in need is not going to make them healthier. As it is, people in need wind up eating a lot of crap because that's what's affordable. If you want to donate some sort of food to people in need, make it something that will benefit their bodies and nourish them so that they can be fit to work.

[LVwidow]

The cookies don't have to have health/nutritional value. Everyone is not a health nut. Ask the homeless if they care about being hungry or "nutritional correct". Bottom line is those cookies could have been donated and eaten instead of just thrown away, especially from "nonprofit" organizations who always have their hands out for donations themselves.

[Manadnock]

What kind of human being would deny a starving person a chance to eat? If someone is consuming less than 1,000 calories a day, your judgement of healthy is meaningless. You are obviously someone who has never had a hungry day in their spoiled little life.