It’s Girl Scout cookie time! The newest ingredient? Inflation. The oldest ingredients? Collaboration and determination.

Drone footage of the downtown St. Paul skyline features prominently in a new “sizzle reel”-style online ad from Girl Scouts River Valleys council, which is sending more than 11,000 cookie sellers throughout the Twin Cities metro, southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin this season to sell some 3 million boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

The ad shows a major “cookie drop” last weekend at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, where truckloads of boxes were recently distributed to troop leaders and sales organizers. The annual fundraising sales, considered the largest girl-led entrepreneurship program in the world, run from Friday through March 24. The organization, one of three Girl Scouts councils in Minnesota, is based in St. Paul and Brooklyn Center.

Inflation has driven prices in the region up from $5 to $6 per box this year, a heftier price to pay for Thin Mints, Caramel deLites and the seven other varieties of Girl Scout cookies. Sales generated some $3.4 million for southern Minnesota-area troops last year, with the rest split between the regional and national council.

“We’d held steady at the $5 mark since 2019,” said Alora Jones, a spokesperson for the Girl Scouts River Valleys.

Troops affiliated with Girl Scouts River Valleys sell door-to-door and through booths at Cub Foods and other retail partners, but customers looking for a quick fix can also text COOKIES to 59618 or visit GirlScoutsRV.org to use the Girl Scout Cookie Finder.