these local doughnut shops soon dominated native franchises such as Winchell's Donuts. Ngoy and Yen allegedly planned to purchase boxes of a lucky red color rather than the standard white, but settled on a leftover pink stock because of its lower cost. In the mid-1970s, pink doughnut boxes were already a common sight in the eastern and midwestern United States, due to the fact that Dunkin' Donuts used a solid pink color for its boxes at that time. (It switched to a different box design sometime after 1975.) But the chain did not begin to establish a major presence in California until the 2010s. Owing to the success of Ngoy and Yen's business, the color soon became a recognizable standard in California. Due to the locality of Hollywood, the pink boxes frequently appeared as film and television props and were thus transmitted into popular culture. Holidays and festivals National Doughnut Day National Doughnut Day, also known as National Donut Day, celebrated in the United States of America, is on the first Friday of June each year, succeeding the Doughnut Day event created by The Salvation Army in 1938 to honor those of their members who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I. About 250 Salvation Army volunteers went to France. Because of the difficulties of providing freshly baked goods from huts established in abandoned buildings near the front lines, the two Salvation Army volunteers (Ensign Margaret Sheldon and Adjutant Helen Purviance) came up with the idea of providing doughnuts. These are reported to have been an "instant hit", and "soon many soldiers were visiting The Salvation Army huts". Margaret Sheldon wrote of one busy day: "Today I made 22 pies, 300 doughnuts, 700 cups of coffee." Soon, the women who did this work became known by the servicemen as "Doughnut Dollies". See also Brown Bobby Cronut Danish (pastry) Fried dough foods Gulab Jamun Kolache List of desserts List of doughnut shops List of doughnut varieties Pączki Pan dulce (sweet bread) Pastry Puff-puff Sufganiyah Torus References Further reading Origins of the doughnut hole. Articles containing video clips Types of food