Cooking with Critters Girl Scout Badge Opportunity

Our friend Aly Moore of Bugible continues to blow my mind…she invented a badge for the Girl Scouts revolving around edible insects called the “Cooking with Critters” badge.

Are you kidding me? How awesome is that?

She had such a great response from local Girl Scout troops that she is now booked through next year up and down the West Coast just teaching Girl Scouts about edible insects.

She has come up with a fantastic idea, and has made an opportunity available for you to get involved. Here is a portion of her release:

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Hi All,

I’m writing to share some information about a project I’m pumped for: the “Cooking with Critters” box! A little more info about the project: I was invited by the Girl Scouts of Southern California to lead a “Cooking with Critters” class for 40-50 girls and troop leaders.

The format is a 30-minute talk followed by two easy “cooking with bugs” projects (three sample recipe titles attached.) The girls were then able to earn a new badge we created for the class (photo attached.) The kids took home their creations and tasked with getting their families to try some bugs. The response from this class was overwhelming and I’m now booked for classes up and down the coast of California through 2019.

I’d like to expand this class and badge nationally (first to the Girl Scouts) and then to science camps and education centers across the country. While I can’t physically be at all of these locations, I see this as an excellent opportunity to expand this education through “Cooking with Critters Boxes.” Each box will be a “lesson in a box” of sorts. I’m in the process of editing an illustrated book that will be used by the troop leaders in my absence. Each box will contain: the booklet, 3 recipe cards, bugs + products (along with order forms or marketing materials), cooking-craft supplies (clothespins, bags, pipe cleaners), and the badges (in the case of the Girl Scouts.) The boxes may have rotating recipe cards, depending on the age level of the groups/students and the companies that I’m working with.

Ideally, the marketing benefit of this for included brands (along with the opportunity to form lasting vendor relationships with the troops or educational centers that purchase the initial box) will make the relationship valuable enough to merit product donations, so I’m not out of pocket for this. I understand that margins are small right now for many companies, however, and want to make this partnership feasible and attractive for all.

I’m still working out the final pricing and distribution avenues/projections for these boxes, but I wanted to reach out at this stage to secure my first 3 – 4 box partners. I’ve already heard back from a few folks in response to the first email I sent out about this, and they’ll have priority on a first-come-first-serve basis. Ideally, each box will have:

1 “gateway bug” product (chips, chocolate, or protein bars)
3 – 4 varieties of flavored bugs for the trail mix, biscuits, or ants on a log (2 – 4 oz of each)

As I mentioned, my hope is to collect information from initial box sales that suggest the product cost can be more-than-compensated for in marketing gain + resulting follow-up sales. Until then, I’d like to offer my initial partners a percentage of each box sale ($5-$10) to make up for product donation costs. I will be creating 25 boxes to start.

Let me know if you have an interest in participating! I have attached additional information and photos to this email. (If you no longer wish to be included in opportunities like this, no worries – just let me know!)

Warm regards,

Aly Moore