Retailers, Suppliers Celebrate Donut Day

CINCINNATI — Retailers, suppliers, and local dignitaries will celebrate National Donut Day here Friday. This, the third such annual event at a downtown park, features attention-getters such as a doughnut flipping contest, races, remote radio broadcasts, and, naturally, a lot of doughnuts supplied by local retailers.

Supermarket retailers participating for the first time this year include Buehler’s Grocery,  Niemann Foods, Coburns and Schnucks, Dennis Smith, president of Paper Products Co., told SN. Smith and Marilyn Harris, a local radio show host and food consultant are co-hosts of the event which is orchestrated by the Greater Cincinnati Bakers Association in conjunction with the local chapter of the Salvation Army. Supplier sponsors are BakeMark and Dawn Foods.

Each year, the event attracts more people and more media attention, Smith said, and added that he expects this year’s crowd to top last year’s. The event raises money for the Salvation Army and pushes up doughnut sales for retailers all over the region.

While celebrating Donut Day is relatively new for Cincinnati, it’s far from new elsewhere. In fact, the Salvation Army first recognized the doughnut with its own day in 1938. The non-profit organization, having served doughnuts and coffee to American troops overseas as early as World War I, gets much of the credit for making doughnuts an American favorite.