The calendar is full of days celebrating food. One of the better-known food holidays is National Donut Day, celebrated on the first Friday of June. At first glance, this may seem to be a day made up by donut bakers for the sole purpose of selling more donuts. The origin is actually far more wholesome and worthy of celebration.
During World War I, the Salvation Army sent volunteers overseas to serve and encourage the troops. Two of the women who volunteered, Ensigns Margaret Sheldon and Helen Purviance, decided to bake the soldiers something that would remind them of home. Their supplies were limited to the equipment and food ingredients available on the battlefield. They decided to make a simple doughnut, using shell casings and wine bottles for rolling pins and a helmet as a makeshift fryer.
The first night, they served 150 doughnuts. The homemade treats were so popular that they were given more supplies and eventually made 9000 doughnuts a day. Helen Purviance wrote in a letter home, “Well, can you think of two women cooking, in one day, 2,500 doughnuts, eight dozen cupcakes, fifty pies, 800 pancakes, and 255 gallons of cocoa, and one other girl serving it. That is a day’s work.” Even though they made other baked treats, the girls became known as the Donut Lassies.
Even though they sent only 250 volunteers, the Salvation Army quickly became the most popular organization supporting the troops in France, thanks to their tireless efforts to encourage and serve them, even at risk to themselves. Another Donut Lassie, Stella Young, recounted a time when shrapnel ripped through a donut pan just as she had stepped away. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. said, “Before the war, I felt that the Salvation Army was composed of a well-meaning lot of cranks. Now what help I can give them is theirs.”
Years later, in 1938, in Chicago, the Salvation Army declared the first National Donut Day to honor the service and sacrifice of their Donut Lassies and to raise funds and awareness of the work that the Salvation Army does. The holiday eventually spread across the country. Today, National Donut Day is more about having an excuse to eat donuts at a discount price. But as you enjoy your donuts this Friday, take a moment to remember the holiday’s noble origins and the importance of serving others, even with something as seemingly simple as a donut.
Crystal Kelly is a feature writer for Bizarre Bytes with those unusual facts that you only need to know for Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, or to stump your in-laws.
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