When: 1st Friday of June
National Donut Day celebrates the fried dough ring that has been a comfort food and cultural touchstone from Dutch olykoeks in colonial America to the Krispy Kreme hot light era. The doughnut's shape, its hole, and its glazes all have specific histories — and the Salvation Army's role in making it an American icon during World War I is one of food history's most touching stories.
Doughnuts have a hole for a reason — a 19th-century ship captain named Hanson Gregory claimed he invented the ring shape because the center of fried dough never cooked through, and punching out the raw middle solved the problem.
The doughnut's American origin lies with Dutch settlers who brought "olykoeks" (oily cakes) to New Amsterdam in the 17th century — balls of sweetened fried dough that became a colonial staple. These were solid rounds, not rings. The hole story belongs to Hanson Gregory, a New England ship captain who claimed in 1847 that he invented the ring doughnut to solve the problem of underdone centers — and drove home his invention by impaling one on a spoke of the ship's wheel. The story may be invented, but the date (1847) and the concept (the ring creates even cooking) are sound. The Salvation Army created the modern cultural association between doughnuts and American soldiers. During World War I, Salvation Army volunteers — primarily young women — set up mobile kitchens close to the front lines in France, frying doughnuts in helmets and mess kits to give to American soldiers. The "Doughnut Lassies," as they became known, served thousands of doughnuts as a taste of home to men in the...