Girl Guides of Canada's fall cookie campaign is underway, but a seasonal favourite is missing from the menu.
There are no chocolate mint cookies for sale this year, instead Girl Guides is offering its chocolate and vanilla sandwich cookies, normally available in the spring, to consumers.
"Due to the ongoing pandemic, we’ve had to make some adjustments to our cookie fundraiser, which includes having just one cookie campaign for 2021," a spokesperson from Girl Guides of Canada said in an emailed statement. "Our mint cookies will be back in the fall of 2022."
Longtime Wellington County Girl Guide leader Marlene Skerritt said customers have quickly snapped up the available sandwich cookies. But the lack of mint hasn't gone unnoticed.
"A lot of people are really disappointed because they're used to having the mint cookies over Christmas, it's a really great Christmas treat," Skerritt said.
As to why they're not available, Skerritt says she hasn't received any official word from Girl Guides of Canada. But she suspects it has something to do with the regular spring sandwich cookie campaign being cancelled this year due to uncertainty around the pandemic. She's also heard rumblings of a potential supply chain issue.
Skerritt only ordered 35 boxes of cookies for her Brownie unit to sell this fall, as opposed to the usual 100 she requests.
"Everyone was a little cautious this year with their ordering because no one knew what was going to happen," she explains, referencing the potential for further COVID lockdowns which would limit sales. "We just didn't want to get burned."
Skerritt's cookies, which were delivered at the end of September were quickly sold out within two weeks, and it looks like other guiding groups had similar experiences.
"Right now there's absolutely no cookies that I know of in Ontario," she says.
Cookie-lovers can look for units who still have the sweet treats here.
Skerritt, who's been a volunteer Girl Guides leader in Alma for nearly four decades thanked the community for helping her unit sell out their cookies year after year.
"We have great support, just great support," she said.
