13,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies wasted

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RIVERSIDE, Calif., Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Officials in Riverside, Calif., said they were disappointed to find out more than 13,000 boxes of unsold Girl Scout cookies were thrown away instead of donated.

A video of a tractor trashing the cookies before they were sent to a landfill was posted online in May, CBS Los Angeles reported. In the video, a worker can be heard laughing and saying "Goodbye, Girl Scout cookies!"

Pastor Cathy Purden of the Rock of the Valley Church in Van Nuys saw the video and said: "That's something those children could have had, cookies.

"You stop and think about how many little children would be excited if you gave them a box of Girl Scout cookies. I would be excited. I buy them," Purden said.

Bruce Rankin of the Westside Food Bank said he hates to see food wasted.

"We would have gladly accepted the cookies and they would probably disappear as fast as any product we have in here," Rankin said.

A representative for the Girl Scouts of America headquarters in New York there is no national policy on what to do with unsold cookies, adding that "it's a shame" what happened in Riverside.

San Gorgonio Council of the Girl Scouts head Chuck MacKinnon said he didn't know how unsold cookies were being disposed of.

"Is it the Girl Scout way? No. Did it happen? Yes. Will it happen again? No," MacKinnon said.