a thing that happensNational Donut Day
also: National Doughnut Day
Free donut, first Friday in June, and almost nobody knows it is a war memorial.
An American observance on the first Friday of June, with free donuts at many shops.
The story Cited · wp-national-donut-day
It started in 1938 as a fundraiser for the Chicago Salvation Army: money for people in need during the Depression, and recognition for the Salvation Army Lassies who served donuts to American soldiers in France in the First World War.
About 250 volunteers went to France after the United States entered the war in 1917. Baking in abandoned buildings near the front was difficult, so Ensign Margaret Sheldon and Adjutant Helen Purviance turned to donuts. The men called the women Donut Girls. The idea that this is where the word doughboy comes from is a misconception; the term was in use as early as the Mexican–American War.
Today Inference
The giveaway is now a marketing day for chains. The fundraiser it came from is rarely mentioned on the poster.
The particulars
| when | first Friday in June |
|---|---|
| status | open |
| founded | 1938 |
| region | The United States |
| address | Chicago, IL · Cook County Cited · wp-national-donut-day |
| where | 41.8781, -87.6298 (town) · OpenStreetMap · open in maps Harvested · osm-nominatim |
| confidence | high · updated 2026-09-16 |
Who it runs with
Where we got it
- National Donut Day — Wikipedia · link
Where it came from: Cited a source we name · Harvested pulled from an open dataset · Tradition what the tradition says, hedged · Inference this project's reasoning · Field somebody stood there. This record as JSON.