ObservanceFriday, June 4, 2027
National Doughnut Day
- Date
- Recurs
- The date changes each year. This page always shows the next one.
- Category
- Food
National Doughnut Day falls on the first Friday in June, and it is one of the few food holidays with a documented founder, a documented year, and a reason for existing that has nothing to do with selling doughnuts. The Salvation Army created it in Chicago in 1938 as a Great Depression fundraiser, in tribute to the volunteers who had fried doughnuts for American soldiers in France two decades earlier. The free-doughnut promotions came much later, and from somewhere else.
History
In 1917, after the United States entered the First World War, the Salvation Army sent about 250 officers and volunteers to France to support American troops. Evangeline Booth led the group. Among them was Helen Purviance of Huntington, Indiana, who with Margaret Sheldon began frying doughnuts for soldiers near the front at Montiers-sur-Saulx. The women became known as the Donut Lassies, and the Salvation Army credits returning troops with carrying a taste for the pastry home.
Accounts of that first batch disagree. The Salvation Army says the two hand-patted and fried 150 doughnuts on the first day, using soldiers' steel helmets for want of pans. The Indiana War Memorials Foundation says nearly 200 were made, eight at a time, on a small low stove, and does not mention helmets at all. Both put peak production near 9,000 doughnuts a day. The helmet detail, the most repeated part of the story, comes from the organization that founded the holiday — the best-placed source and an interested one.
The holiday itself dates to 1938, when the Salvation Army in Chicago held the first National Donut Day: a tribute to the Lassies twenty years on, and a fundraiser for families hit by the Depression.
Timeline
- 1917 — The Salvation Army sends about 250 officers and volunteers to France to support American troops; Evangeline Booth leads the group.
- 1917 — Helen Purviance and Margaret Sheldon fry the first doughnuts for soldiers near the front at Montiers-sur-Saulx. Accounts of the first day's count differ: 150 by the Salvation Army's telling, nearly 200 by the Indiana War Memorials Foundation's.
- November 1918 — Purviance serves through the end of the war.
- 1936 — Purviance says publicly that she is sick of doughnuts, and tries to distance herself from the treat.
- 1938 — The Salvation Army in Chicago holds the first National Donut Day, a Depression-era fundraiser and a tribute to the Donut Lassies.
- February 1984 — Purviance dies at ninety-five.
How to observe
Give to the organization that started it. The point of the first National Donut Day was fundraising, and the Salvation Army still runs Donut Day events through its local divisions. The free doughnut offered elsewhere on the first Friday in June is a promotion that borrowed the date.
If you want to fry them the hard way, the Salvation Army's Great Lakes division publishes the Donut Lassies' recipe, scaled to about sixty doughnuts. It is a useful corrective to the image of two women turning out thousands a day on a camp stove.
Look up the Lassies as individuals rather than as a story. Helen Purviance had a documented life well beyond the trenches: a Salvation Army captain who later taught and became a college dean, who by 1936 said she was sick of doughnuts and tried to distance herself from the treat, and who died in February 1984 at ninety-five.
Frequently asked questions
When is National Doughnut Day?
The first Friday in June. The Salvation Army, which created the day, states that rule on its own pages.
Who started National Doughnut Day?
The Salvation Army, in Chicago, in 1938. Every one of the organization's own accounts agrees on the year, the city, and the organization. It was created as a Depression-era fundraiser and as a tribute to the First World War Donut Lassies.
Is it donut or doughnut?
Both are in use for this holiday. The Salvation Army mostly writes National Donut Day, and uses Doughnut Lassies and Donut Lassies interchangeably across its own pages. This site lists the day as National Doughnut Day.
Did the Donut Lassies really fry doughnuts in soldiers' helmets?
The Salvation Army says so, consistently, across several of its own accounts. The Indiana War Memorials Foundation's profile of Helen Purviance describes the same scene in more mechanical detail — eight at a time on a small low round stove — and does not mention helmets anywhere. The helmet version comes from the founding organization, which makes it the best-sourced version available and also the one with an interest in the telling.
Is National Doughnut Day a federal holiday?
No. It has no official status, and nothing closes.
When is National Doughnut Day?
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | June 4 | Friday |
| 2028 | June 2 | Friday |
| 2029 | June 1 | Friday |
| 2030 | June 7 | Friday |
| 2031 | June 6 | Friday |
Sources
- The Salvation Army, The Sweet History Behind National Donut Day — https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/stories/the-sweet-history-behind-national-donut-day/ → the 1938 founding in Chicago by the Salvation Army during the Great Depression; the 1917 mission to France; about 250 volunteers and the huts near the battlefields; Ensign Margaret Sheldon and Adjutant Helen Purviance; 150 doughnuts on the first day and about 9,000 a day at peak; frying in soldiers' steel helmets for want of pans; the Donut Lassies nickname; returning troops popularizing the doughnut; the first Friday in June.
- The Salvation Army (Great Lakes), National Donut Day: A Historical Look at The Salvation Army's Iconic Treat — https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usa-central-territory/great-lakes/stories/national-donut-day-the-sweet-history-behind-the-salvation-army-s-most-famous-treat/ → 1938 as the founding year and Chicago as both fundraiser and tribute; up to 9,000 doughnuts served daily; the first Friday in June; the published Donut Lassies recipe yielding about sixty doughnuts. This page alone attributes the 1917 deployment to a request from General John J. Pershing; that claim is not used in the text above, because the organization's other accounts tie the mission to American entry into the war instead.
- The Salvation Army, National Donut Day: A Sweet Celebration with a Noble Cause (Commissioner Kenneth Hodder) — https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/stories/national-donut-day-a-sweet-celebration-with-a-noble-cause/ → the Salvation Army of Chicago and 1938; the day's dual purpose of honoring the Donut Lassies and raising funds for the organization's social service programs during the Depression; the first Friday in June.
- The Salvation Army (Northern Division), Donut Day — https://centralusa.salvationarmy.org/northern/donut-day/ → the 1938 Chicago origin as a tribute to the Doughnut Lassies; the 1917 mission in France; Sheldon and Purviance frying in soldiers' helmets; the first Friday in June; continued service in the Second World War; local Donut Day events.
- Indiana War Memorials Foundation, Helen Purviance: Salvationist, Doughnut Girl, Teacher and Groundbreaker for Women — https://www.indianawarmemorials.org/2021/03/08/helen-purviance-salvationist-doughnut-girl-teacher-and-groundbreaker-for-women/ → Purviance's birth in Huntington, Indiana; her rank of captain and her departure for France in August 1917; Evangeline Booth leading 250 Salvationists to France in the fall of 1917; Montiers-sur-Saulx; Margaret Sheldon as co-originator; nearly 200 doughnuts on the first day, eight at a time on a small low round stove, with no mention of helmets; 2,000 to 9,000 a day as the equipment improved; service through the end of the war in November 1918; her 1936 remark that she was sick of doughnuts; her later teaching and college deanship; her death in February 1984 at ninety-five.
Rejected as sources: nationaltoday, nationaldaycalendar, checkiday, timeanddate, and the content-farm pages that repeat the helmet story without naming where it comes from.
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