Every year, more than 6 million boxes of Girl Guide cookies are sold across Canada as the primary method of raising funds for local Girl Guide units. Unfortunately, none of these cookies are vegan, as they all contain cows’ milk.

More people than ever before are choosing to adopt a vegan lifestyle in order to avoid harming animals. In the dairy industry, male calves are killed so that humans can drink the milk that the mother cow made for her baby. In rejecting all forms of animal exploitation, vegans consume plant-based foods instead of animal flesh or secretions.

Although Girl Guide cookies are commonly sold or eaten at Guiding events, vegan Girl Guides are excluded from eating, selling, or buying the cookies, while those who avoid milk for health reasons are unable to eat the cookies.

It’s time that Girl Guides of Canada change all three of their cookie recipes to make them vegan-friendly. This would help protect animals from harm, and it would also help GGC align its actions with its value of inclusivity.