It’s Girl Scout Cookie time in Farragut

Farragut lovers of Girl Scout cookies once again can support their local scouts while feeding their cravings.

Troops, such as 21148, are taking orders now.

“We are in our pre-order phase,” Troop 20148 leader Rachel Santana said. “So all the girls have their cookie sheets to take orders on, and they can also take orders on their own personal website.

“We have a fairly small troop of six girls with a big goal of 2,000 boxes of cookies this year,” she added. “Our troop will be bridging from Brownie Girl Scouts to Junior Girl Scouts next year.

“We plan to use our cookie proceeds to pay for everyone’s membership, uniforms, badges and activities for next year.”

Turning in pre-orders last weekend (Jan. 22-23), “We should be able to pick up cookies in February,” Santana said. “But between now and then, the girls can keep taking orders on their goal-getter form, which gets them another patch if they sell 25 goal-getters.”

The troops will start cookie booths around Town, starting Friday, Feb. 25, and continue to take in-person orders. The cookie booths will run through March 20.

Booths have been scheduled at Dick Sporting Goods, At Home and Kroger, “but they are going to roll out more booth locations for us in the next couple of weeks,” Santana said. “If people go online to ‘Find My Cookies’ there’ll be more options as they get closer to booth time.”

Along with all the traditional favorites — Samoas, Thin Mints, Tagalongs, Do-si-dos and Trefoils — the scouts will have a new cookie, the Adventureful, a salted caramel brownie cookie, Santana said.

“They are so good,” she said. “We got to try them when they rolled out for cookie season this year. I tell people they’re a one glass of milk to one cookie ratio.”

There also are S’mores, Lemonades (shortbread cookies), Lemon-Ups, which were new last year, Toast-Yay and Toffee-tastic.

“The boxes are $5 each this year,” Santana said, conceding the price did got up for the first time in many years.

“We have a gluten-free cookie that is $6 a box,” she added.

In addition to ordering from a scout or at a booth, cookies also can be ordered online at  https://DigitalCookie.GirlScouts.org/scout/troop21148-388 to buy cookies from Scout Troop 21148 or at  https://www.girlscouts.org/en/cookies/about-girl-scout-cookies.html and find the troop they want. The cookies will be shipped directly to the buyer.

Farragut’s scouts are part of the Girl Scouts of Southern Appalachia. Santana said her troop is based in Farragut and “got pieced together back in 2019,” she said.

“So we’ve got girls from Farragut schools, from A.L. Lotts — last year we had a homeschooler … and I moved to Oak Ridge,” Santana added. “So we’re spread out all over the place, but we still meet in Farragut, at either the library, Farragut Community Center or Founders Park.”