Chattanooga-Area Boy Scouts Trade Popcorn for MoonPies in Fall Fundraiser
https://news.yahoo.com/chattanooga-area-boy-scouts-trade-040100866.html
Lisa Denton, Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tenn.
September 10, 2021·2 min read
Sep. 10—Call it sweet surrender. After decades of pushing popcorn, local Boy Scouts have a new product for their fall fundraiser.
Starting this weekend, Scouts will be selling MoonPies in neighborhood walkabouts and outside select Food City stores. Elder's Ace Hardware and Walmart stores will be next.
If you live in Ringgold, Georgia, you can even find a MoonPie drive-through on Saturday at Ringgold United Methodist Church, compliments of Cub Scout Pack 3177.
The new partnership benefits "two 100-year-old-plus brands," said Tory Johnston, vice president of marketing for Chattanooga Bakery, which has made the tasty treats since 1917.
"MoonPies are all about families and generations and traditions, and that's what the Scouts are about, too."
Indeed, the Cherokee Area Council has been around since 1915.
This "Shoot for the Moon" fundraiser runs through Oct. 31, said Cherokee Area Council Scout Executive/CEO Jared Pickens. Packs and troops will receive a portion of proceeds from each sale, and prizes will be awarded to all participating Scouts, as well as the chance to attend Scout MoonPie Night at a Chattanooga Lookouts baseball game.
Ringgold-based Cubmaster and executive board member Kyle Croft, who has been dubbed the council's "MoonPie Master," said he remembers selling popcorn from the time he started as a Cub Scout in 1994 to when he earned Eagle Scout at age 18 in 2003. He said he's most excited about all the local opportunities the partnership provides.
"It's not only helping the Cherokee Council, it's helping the people at Chattanooga Bakery. It's helping local Scout troops. It's helping the Lookouts and the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum [which will honor the top seller].
"Our council is about local community service and local civic duty," he said. "MoonPies put a big exclamation point on that."
The Scouts will have five flavors of mini MoonPies: chocolate, vanilla, banana, mint chocolate and pumpkin spice. They come 12 to a box.
"Our primary product is a choose-your-own three-pack for $25, but we are offering classic chocolate for $10 [per box]," Pickens said.
Customers also have the option of purchasing a $50 case that the local nonprofit organization Friends of the Troops will forward to military stations around the world "to give them a taste of Chattanooga," Pickens said.
The best part for consumers may be the freshness factor. These MoonPies are coming straight off the conveyor belt at Chattanooga Bakery's Manufacturers Road facility. That kind of turnaround is "just this side of the Krispy Kreme light blinking," Johnston said.
Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.