One of the biggest names in the cookie business has tapped a two-time Inc. 5000 honoree to craft a new flavor. The Girl Scouts of USA, the more-than-century-old youth organization for girls in kindergarten through 12th grade, announced a new partnership with Partake, a fast-growing consumer packaged goods brand that makes vegan, gluten-free, and nut-free cookies, brownies, and baking mixes, to formulate its first-ever allergy-friendly cookie.
Sparkables, which will come packaged in a pink box, will be crunchy oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips and rainbow sprinkles. As with all of Partake’s products, they will not include any eggs, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, soy, sesame, shellfish, or fish, which together are responsible for more than 90 percent of food allergies. The new flavor will debut in January as an online exclusive for the 2027 Girl Scout cookie selling season, which runs through April.
In a statement released earlier today, the nonprofit said this expansion was about bringing “a new level of inclusivity to the Girl Scout Cookie portfolio” and “giving families navigating the most common food allergies a way to feel more included during Girl Scout Cookie season.” For Partake founder and CEO Denise Woodward, who called the Girl Scouts a “dream partner,” this collaboration is a deeply personal one, and one that marks a full circle moment for her New York City-based startup.
Woodward launched Partake in 2016 after giving birth
Woodward launched Partake in 2016 after giving birth to her daughter, Vivienne, and discovering after multiple trips to the emergency room, that she had severe food allergies. As a mom, Woodward struggled to find any sweet treats that Vivienne could enjoy at birthday parties, so she decided to create her own. Now, more than a decade later, those allergy-friendly baked goods are stocked in more than 11,000 retailers, including Walmart, Target, Wegmans, Whole Foods, and Food Lion.
The company has scaled fast enough to land on the Inc. 5000 list twice, posting subsequent three-year growth rates of 7,489 percent and 3,570 percent. But perhaps most importantly, Vivienne is now a Girl Scout herself. “When you think Girl Scouts, one of the first things you think of is cookies, and having a cookie that nearly everyone can enjoy adds a very important, very personal lens to this.
Our objective as a business is helping everyone feel more included,” says Woodward, who has been working on the collaboration since 2020, when she first connected with the Girl Scouts. “The goal is to have Partake in every pantry, and a partnership with Girl Scouts is a big step forward in that direction.”
Source: www.inc.com
