CINCINNATI — Retailers here expect an attention-getting celebration of National Donut Day, Friday, June 4, to boost doughnut sales for everybody for miles around.
The event has been organized by the Greater Cincinnati Retail Bakers Association, in conjunction with the Salvation Army, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary.
While the celebration is a first for Cincinnati, Donut Day is not new. 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.
Doughnut sales, taking a hit in the last few years as people went on various carbohydrate-limiting diets, will almost certainly see a hefty lift resulting from the celebration, event planners told SN.
“Anything we can do to bring attention to the doughnut and to baking in general, and, at the same time, bring a smile to our customers' faces is good,” said Greater Cincinnati Retail Bakers Association President Mike VanFleet, who is an executive pastry chef at Kroger's Cincinnati stores.
“We're making this a fun event,” VanFleet told SN. “There's going to be a triathlon with doughnut stacking and rolling, and sliding. Oh, and a race while balancing a doughnut on a spoon. Local dignitaries will be participating [in the competitions].”
With local bakeries donating doughnuts, more than 1,000 served, and the local branch of The Salvation Army will be serving free coffee from its mobile canteen.
BakeMark, California-based manufacturer and distributor of baking ingredients, is sponsoring the charitable event, which will benefit the Salvation Army.
The distributor has supplied signs and other promo materials that say, “There's dozens of reasons to participate in Donut Day,” that local retailers are putting up in their stores right now.
“We're very pleased with the local media's involvement,” said Dennis Smith, president of Cincinnati-based Paper Products, and a member of the bakers association's event planning committee.
“All four major television stations here will have a representative participating in the contests, and they'll be covering the celebration,” Smith said.
“And Mary Ann Acree [secretary of the Greater Cincinnati Bakers Association] is great about contacting the newspaper and radio stations. On the night before, Salvation Army representatives are going to visit the radio stations and hand out boxes of doughnuts.”
Smith and Acree said there are about 12 local retail bakeries with representatives on the committee. They've helped decide what to include on the day's agenda, and how to get the most local publicity out of the event, set for noon to 2 p.m. in the city's Fountain Square Park.
“We're hoping this will be the biggest doughnut-selling day of the year for everybody around here,” VanFleet said.
Some retailers, in nearby areas, such as Riesbeck's, St. Clairsville, Ohio, are tying into Donut Day with events of their own.
“We're going to do a one-day sale with a good price, and maybe even give away doughnuts the first couple of hours,” said John Chickery, the nine-unit independent's bakery director.
