If you’ve ever been tempted to buy Girl Scout cookies, now is the time to break out your cash, New Yorkers.
Girl Scouts in New York City’s Troop 6000, a troop for girls in homeless shelters, are selling their delicious wares in Union Square through Friday. And they’re aiming high: The goal is to sell 6,000 boxes.
“The biggest impact that we see and when you talk to the girls you’ll hear them say, is that they belong to something, they have a sisterhood within the other Girl Scouts,” Meridith Maskara of the Girl Scouts of Greater New York, told ABC News. “They talk to other girls who may be in their same situation who feel alone, and they feel like they have a stronger sense of community and belonging overall.”
Troop 6000 was created in 2016 to allow the thousands of girls living in the New York City shelter system to participate in Girl Scouts.
Homeless children make up nearly 40 percent of those housed by the city’s shelter system. A report last year by the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness found that the typical homeless elementary school student missed 88 days of school ― almost half the school year.
Participation in an organization like Girl Scouts gives girls a “stronger sense of self, achieve higher levels of education, and are more likely to reach a higher socio-economic status,” according to Girl Scout research.
“Every girl in the five boroughs of New York City deserves a chance to reach her full potential: to have her eyes opened to possibilities for college and careers, to make loving and supportive friends, to learn from caring female mentors, and to chart her own course to achieve her goals. That’s what Troop 6000 is all about,” the Girl Scouts of Greater New York’s website says.
Troop 6000′s approximately two dozen members are preparing for the big Union Square cookie sale, Corinthia Fludd, Troop 6000’s recruiting specialist, told AM New York.
The girls have “been wanting to do this for so long,” Fludd said. “It’s the number one thing they ask.”
Of course, girls who live in homeless shelters would face daunting logistical challenges selling and distributing boxes of Girl Scout cookies the usual way. That’s why Kellogg’s NYC, a cereal cafe on East 17th Street in Union Square, offered the Troop 6000 girls space for a stand.
You can find the girls in front of Kellogg’s NYC through Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. If you’re not in New York, you can still find cookies near you here.
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