Two New SKUs
Girl Scouts of the USA is adding two firsts to its national 2027 cookie lineup: Patch Pals, a soft-baked blueberry muffin-flavored dog treat developed with BARK (NYSE: BARK), and Girl Scout Sparkables, a crunchy oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookie developed with allergen-free brand Partake. Both products will be available exclusively via direct-ship online beginning January 12, 2027, when the national cookie season opens, and will not appear in traditional booth or retail channels.
The move extends the Girl Scout Cookie Program beyond its conventional consumer base in two directions simultaneously — into the pet specialty segment and into the fast-growing free-from food category. Patch Pals are baked in four "patch" designs tied to iconic Scouting experiences, while Sparkables are produced in a facility engineered to avoid the nine major food allergens, including wheat, tree nuts, peanuts, milk, eggs, soy, fish, sesame, and shellfish. The Sparkables formulation is also certified gluten-free, non-GMO, and vegan.
The Co-Brand Rationale
BARK, which operates the BarkBox and Super Chewer subscription businesses and distributes through Target, Chewy, and Amazon, brings established pet-treat formulation and manufacturing credibility to the collaboration. Partake, a Certified B Corp founded in 2016 by Denise Woodard, Chief Executive Officer, has built distribution across more than 11,000 U.S. retail doors on the strength of its top-9-free positioning — making it a logical partner for a program that aims to be more inclusive to families managing common dietary restrictions. The online-only, ship-direct format sidesteps the logistical complexity of integrating perishable or specialty-allergen products into the decentralized booth-sales model that defines most of the cookie season.
Category and Channel Context
The free-from segment has been one of the more durable growth vectors in packaged food over the past several years, with allergen-friendly SKUs increasingly standard on grocery planograms and foodservice menus alike. At the same time, the humanization of pets has pushed pet-treat quality upward, with premium and functional formats taking share from commodity biscuits. For operators and retailers tracking licensed seasonal programs, the Girl Scout Cookie franchise — which runs nationally from January through April, with regional variation — represents one of the highest-profile consumer packaged goods events of the first quarter. Adding two incremental, online-only SKUs carries minimal supply-chain risk for local councils while expanding the addressable market for the program. All proceeds from cookie sales remain local, flowing back to Girl Scout councils and troops to fund programming across STEM, outdoor education, and leadership development. Industry observers tracking seasonal LTO strategy and licensed product extensions will note that the co-brand structure keeps formulation risk with the manufacturing partners while GSUSA controls brand equity and distribution timing.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
