The historical roots of National Donut Day
As lovely a sight as a box of fresh doughnuts on the break room table is, imagine how much more lovely that doughnut would appear hand-delivered to you in the trenches by a young woman.
Lovely enough to make a national holiday celebrating the bearers of the doughnuts? Someone thought so.
National Donut Day began in 1938 at the Chicago branch of the Salvation Army, meant to celebrate “Doughnut Lassies.”
Beginning in 1917, the women cooked doughnuts and served them with coffee to troops on the front lines in France during World War I.
There were only a few ingredients available to the Doughnut Lassies, so they made a simple recipe and fried the doughnuts by using soldiers’ helmets to hold the hot oil. The cheerful ladies and their sweet snacks were meant to bring a dose of joy to the troops.