Girl Scout Cookies Will Be Sold Online Nationwide This Year, Including Via Grubhub

Girl Scout Cookie season begins rolling out each January—and last year, the timing couldn't have been much worse. Just as sales were supposed to be ramping up, America was hit with the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the organization searching for an alternative plan. Thankfully, they quickly adjusted: By March, the Girl Scouts set up online ordering, allowing people to ship cookies directly to their door or donate boxes to frontline workers. And for 2021, the Girl Scouts are coming in prepared (and bringing a new cookie with them).

Today, the Girl Scouts of USA (GSUSA) announced the national kickoff of the 2021 cookie season, and though scouts may find selling cookies more challenging due to COVID-19, the good news for fans is that ordering cookies is actually easier than ever thanks to a new partnership with the delivery app Grubhub and the return of the Girl Scouts' national online ordering site on February 1.

That's not to say you can't still buy cookies directly from a Girl Scout. In fact, GSUSA suggests that, if you want cookies, you should reach out to any Girl Scouts you know first to see how they're selling them. The organization explains that many members are still working "in creative, socially distant, and contact-free ways," from "running virtual cookie booths on social media to setting up drive-through locations to facilitating orders that ship directly to customers' doors."

But if you don't know any scouts—and don't expect one to come strolling by your desk at home like they would at the office—you still have online options. And as the GSUSA stresses, even then, "the proceeds from each and every purchase stay local with the troop and its council." If you use the national online ordering site, your purchase goes through a local troop based on your zip code. And with the Grubhub partnership—which will be available in "select markets, with additional markets added throughout cookie season"—orders are tracked and fulfilled by Girl Scouts using Grubhub's backend technology (with Grubhub waiving its fees for the scouts).

"We're proud of the resourceful ways Girl Scouts are running their cookie businesses safely and using their earnings to make the world a better place," Interim GSUSA CEO Judith Batty said in the announcement. "This season, our girls will continue to exemplify what the cookie program taught them—how to think like entrepreneurs, use innovative sales tactics, and pivot to new ways of doing business when things don't go according to plan. The cookie program is what keeps Girl Scouts thriving in communities across the country and is proven to build girls' leadership skills and help them become successful in life."

Finally, when you do order, don't forget about 2021's new cookie: Toast-Yay! Billed as "a French toast–inspired cookie dipped in delicious icing and full of flavor in every bite," we got a chance to taste the cookie before its release last year.