Girl Scouts introduce supply chain badge

For five years now, Girl Scouts have been able to earn a transportation badge by attending a program on job opportunities in trucking.

But logistics pros know there’s far more to the business than just highway transportation. To help round out the picture (and raise awareness of the profession), a group of industry leaders recently teamed up to design a program on the extended supply chain. 

Logistics and transportation services provider Ryder System Inc. worked with the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee and the Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida (GSTF) to develop the curriculum, which is aimed at girls in grades K-12. Titled “Girl Scout Cookies and the Supply Chain,” the program delves into the inner workings of supply chains, including the one operated by the world’s largest girl-run business—Girl Scout Cookies. 

In December, 43 girls from around the country were the first to earn the new supply chain patch. The girls attended a virtual event that traced the journey of a Girl Scout cookie as well as a Domino’s pizza through their respective supply chains. Participants also heard from women in the supply chain and logistics fields on how supply chain affects everyone’s lives. 

GSTF says it plans to work with the national Girl Scouts organization to roll out the “Girl Scout Cookies and the Supply Chain” curriculum to other local chapters later in 2021. That cookie business, incidentally, is no small-time operation. The organization sells and distributes more than 200 million boxes of cookies nationwide, and 1 billion worldwide, each year.