Dare to be different.
The Girl Guides of Canada has taken this saying to heart since awarding its time-honoured Girl Guide Cookie Campaign contract to Canadian cookie manufacturer Dare Foods Ltd. of Kitchener, Ont.
After a 40-year relationship with Nabisco/Christie Brown & Co., the Girl Guides awarded the contract to the Canadian company because it was a better fit for them, not because of dissatisfaction with the larger American cookie-maker.
Available this spring, the new chocolate and vanilla creme cookies will be produced in a peanut-free facility dedicated specifically to the Girl Guide contract.
The cookies are remarkably similar in taste to the originals, though connoisseurs of the old cookie may be able to detect slight differences between the old and new varieties, especially the chocolate.
A new chocolatey mint cookie will be unveiled for the fall campaign and promises to be just as delicious.
The cookies also bear a new design representing the forward movement of Guiding and symbolizing the dynamism of the new Girl Guide experience: fun, friendship, and new activities for girls.
The cookies even come in a new bright, colourful, and fun-looking box. Accompanying the cookies is the slogan, “Great food for growing girls.”
The tradition of the cookie campaign started in 1927 in Regina, Sask. when a Guider began raising funds for her Girl Guides by baking and boxing cookies for her girls to sell to neighbours and friends.
It continues today—more than 75 years later—as a way of raising money to help fund the Guiding movement in Canada. It funds innovative programs and activities, helps girls attend events and camps, trains leaders, and maintains camps and properties.
As the box says: “Funds raised from the sale of Girl Guide cookies are used to create fun, active, and friendship-filled experiences for girls and young women, giving them opportunities to develop self-confidence, show kindness, and connect with our wider world.”
The campaign also is a way of teaching the girls useful skills like planning and goal setting, communication and sales, safety awareness, problem-solving and decision-making, money and time management, teamwork, and customer service.
The campaign sells more than six million boxes per year across Canada, raising $14 million.
This spring, the cost of each box of cookies will be set nation-wide at $4. In the past, the price has fluctuated from province to province.
Cookies will be available here April 1-2 when the girls “blitz” the town door-to-door, then will be available from members and organizers after that.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
