Borderland Girl Scouts to use drive-thrus, GrubHub app to sell cookies amid pandemic

EL PASO, Texas -- Girl Scout cookie season has begun and if you thought a pandemic was going to cause cookies sales to crumble, you thought wrong.

Local Girl Scouts are finding safe and creative ways to continue their cookie sales this year amid the pandemic.

“We thought that we would see a decline and we know that more parents are concerned about the safety of their children and the safety of themselves,” said Patty Craven, CEO of Girl Scouts of The Desert Southwest.

It was those safety concerns that pushed Girl Scout organizers to come up with a safe way for girls to continue their cookie sales during this pandemic.

"Instead of seeing a lot of girls in store, you might see drive-thru booths," Craven said. "A drive-thru booth is going to have a pop-up tent, a sanitization station and you’re going to see that people stay in their cars."

To help girls remain socially distant, each drive-by booth will only have a two people, the Girl Scout and her mother, instead of a full troop of girls together.

For those who rather order through apps, starting Feb. 4, customers can order cookies through the GrubHub app or they can use the Digital Cookie app to have cookies delivered directly to them.

"And people can order online for girls to do porch drop-offs or girls can go ahead and take orders through their digital app and pay for them from a distance so they're not handling money,” Craven said.

Girl scout organizers are hoping that these new contact-less methods will bring a sense of joy during challenging times.

“We’re really hoping that by putting all of these safeguards in place, it will allow the girls to have that normalcy and have that mental break of stress and allow them to look forward to planning out their goals for the summertime," Craven said.

All online cookie ordering methods will be available to customers Feb. 1.