RIVERSIDE, California. A CBS News investigation has revealed that more than 13,000 boxes of perfectly good Girl Scout cookies were trashed — rather than donated.

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“Listen,” he says, “as a worker gleefully cheers it on.”

Says the worker, “Goodbye, Girl Scout cookies!”

The video was taken last May. But sources tell Goldstein this practice has been going on for years — these cookies were leftovers.

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The cookies were well within their expiration date. They still had shelf life.

Why are they destroyed instead of donated?

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Pastor Cathy Purden of the Rock of the Valley Church in Van Nuys says, “That’s something those children could have had, cookies.”

The congregation prays for food. They feed 50-60 people once a week using food donations. Pastor Purden says she would have gladly accepted the 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.”

Goldstein traced the trashed cookies to the San Gorgonio Council of the Girl Scouts in Redlands.

He asks Chuck MacKinnon of San Gorgonio Girl Scouts, “You didn’t know the cookies were being destroyed”?

MacKinnon says, “We didn’t know that was the way they were being disposed of, no.”… — rather than donated.

Goldstein has video of a tractor trashing the cookies before they were sent to a landfill.

“Listen,” he says, “as a worker gleefully cheers it on.”

Says the worker, “Goodbye, Girl Scout cookies!”

The video was taken last May. But sources tell Goldstein this practice has been going on for years — these cookies were leftovers.

The cookies were well within their expiration date. They still had shelf life.

Why are they destroyed instead of donated?

Pastor Cathy Purden of the Rock of the Valley Church in Van Nuys says, “That’s something those children could have had, cookies.”

The congregation prays for food. They feed 50-60 people once a week using food donations. Pastor Purden says she would have gladly accepted the 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.”

Goldstein traced the trashed cookies to the San Gorgonio Council of the Girl Scouts in Redlands.

He asks Chuck MacKinnon of San Gorgonio Girl Scouts, “You didn’t know the cookies were being destroyed”?

MacKinnon says, “We didn’t know that was the way they were being disposed of, no.”