Modesto’s Girl Scout Cookie Cupboard commander runs a tight ship

How many cookies are in your cupboard? A box or two? More, if you’re a bit of a cookie monster?

The Cookie Cupboard that Heide Allen stocks at her Modesto home has seen an average of 6,000 cases come and go annually in recent years. At 12 boxes per case, and from 14 to 40 cookies per box, that’s roughly between 1 million and 2.8 million cookies a year.

You know them by name: Thin Mints, Caramel deLites, Lemonades, Peanut Butter Patties and so on. And before they’re delivered to your door by Girl Scouts or tempt you as you see cookie booths at shopping centers, they’re taken to Allen.

She’s the Cookie Cupboard commander for troops in Modesto and well beyond. She’s long been appreciated by troop leaders, and earlier this month was surprised in Sacramento with an honor from the Girl Scouts Heart of Central California council. During an annual council meeting, Allen, 72, was one of only four Girl Scout volunteers to receive the Honor Pin for outstanding service.

She was saluted for well more than 30 years of service, working 40-plus-hour weeks during cookie season.

“You manage a very large and active cupboard, coordinate site recruitment, communicate with stores and send thanks to each site after a sale,” she was told when called up to receive the honor. “And when you are not busy with those tasks, you advise, encourage and support everyone involved in the cookie program.”

Allen’s Cookie Cupboard opened Feb. 15 and runs through the end of booth sales, March 15. On Tuesday, her garage was packed with a fresh delivery and her driveway was stacked with orders awaiting pickup by troops. As troop leaders, Scouts and the occasional “cookie dad” made pickups, Allen and a helper or two carried more orders to the driveway.

Janet Smith, leader of Troop 3289 in Turlock, was double-checking her order with daughter Alex. They came to Allen’s cupboard because the smaller one in Hilmar had a stocking problem. “She is super-accommodating when it’s hot (saleswise) and you don’t have enough cookies to fill it,” Smith said of Allen. “She will get you the cookies.”

Another pickup was being made by Sharon Keyes of Troop 4082 of Modesto, who’s new to leading a troop.

“I was just telling her how phenomenal she is. Look at this!” Keyes said, referring to the organized stacks of cookies. “I’m so impressed with the whole process.”

That process, in the simplest of explanations, includes Allen working with Graebel Van Lines movers to smartly pack her garage with cookie cases, nearly wall to wall, floor to ceiling.

“I was out here with a measuring tape to see if we could get it all in,” she said of a recent big delivery. She makes appointments with troop leaders to pick up their orders and sets the correct number of each type in her driveway. A slip attached to each order includes the troop number and the requested amount of each cookie variety. Allen requires troop leaders to count the order and sign off on it.

She’s very patient, troop leaders said, but Allen noted that one thing that steams her is if someone misses an appointment without good reason. That usually happens with only new leaders, and usually not more than once.

“Once you’ve been here and seen the operation, you know how important it is to be ready,” Allen said.

The cookie chief had a lot of help Tuesday from a couple of women, including Christine Ellis, a troop leader. Because a big shipment arrived a little later than usual, Allen was worried about not being ready for the cupboard to open late afternoon.

“I told her she was a lifesaver,” she said of Ellis.

“I can’t believe the stuff she does,” Ellis said, taking a brief break from lugging boxes. Managing the cupboard isn’t demanding just in measure of time and brainpower, but muscle. Moving cookie cases around for hours on end can be hard, sweaty work, Ellis said.

“We couldn’t do this without her,” but “we worry about her” working as hard as she does, said Merry Graham, leader of Troop 406, a troop of older girls who live in Oakdale, Riverbank, Escalon and Modesto.

Graham has known Allen about 33 years and said she plays an integral role in the success of Girl Scouting.

“This isn’t the only part of Girl Scouts that she does,” Graham said, pointing out that until just last year Allen was a troop leader, too.

“When my daughter asked me to be her troop co-leader, I had to tell myself I’d be 72 when they graduated,” Allen said, and asked herself it she’d be up to the job.

Of course, she was more than capable, and helped shape successful young women. Of the six in the troop, five earned the Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouting, and five earned the Rose Award, which was created by Girl Scout Seniors in the Heart of Central California council to recognize and promote leadership.

After briefly mentioning that she’d “like to retire sometime” from running the cupboard, Allen was back to helping troop leaders.

So many cookies, so little time.

“Lemonades are blowing out of here,” she said of what’s selling well. “The Caramel deLites were pretty much always No. 2” behind perennial favorites Thin Mints, “but the Lemonades were last year.”

As for overall sales volume, “I see it going higher this year. I’m already at 2,500 cases and we’re just started,” Allen said. “I told the delivery guys today to put it on record they’ll need a truck here again Friday.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Modesto’s Girl Scout Cookie Cupboard commander runs a tight ship."