This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
A recently-obtained video from last May shows a tractor destroying over 13,000 perfectly decent, unexpired boxes of Girl Scout cookies at a landfill in Riverside.
To be honest, it's hard to wrap our brain around the idea that there could be a glut of Girl Scout cookies since it feels like those suckers tend to go fast after cookie-selling season is over. But apparently this is a regular occurrence, and CBS Los Angeles obtained got to the bottom of the wasteful story that rightfully pissed off the people who feed the hungry and run food banks.
It turns out the San Gorgonio Council ordered way too many boxes last year, but they had no idea the boxes they sent back to their supplier ABC Bakery would end up in a landfill. The council said they often donate unsold cookies, and last year they donated more than 100,000 boxes.
A reporter from CBS pressed Chuck MacKinnon of the San Gorgonio Girl Scouts on Cookie-gate: "Is it the Girl Scout way? No. Did it happen? Yes. Will it happen again? No."
Girl Scout headquarters in New York doesn't have a national policy on what it does with unsold cookies, but a spokesperson told CBS that "it's a shame" about what happened in Riverside. MacKinnon vowed that this would never happen again and that their troops would be more diligent about not ordering too many boxes.
