Clyde's Donuts and The Salvation Army: A Delicious Partnership
This blog post has been provided by Clyde's Donuts, our Donut Day partner in Chicagoland. The local bakery provides tasty donuts for grocery stores and other retail outlets throughout the Chicagoland area. If you've picked up a donut at Jewel-Osco, you've had a Clyde's!
Herman Seekamp introduced Clyde’s Delicious Donuts in 1920, just a few years after The Salvation Army's Donut Lassies started making the treats in France. His goal was to serve high-quality donuts directly to coffee shops and restaurants throughout Chicago. By the 1930s, delivery trucks would leave the first location at 633 W. Webster Street daily, making stops throughout the downtown Chicago area.
In 1948, Herman’s son-in-law Willard (Bill) W. Bickford joined the family business and learned the art of crafting delicious donuts. Bill’s vision to expand the business grew to supporting not only existing coffee shops, but as many as five retail Clyde’s stores, under the name “The Donut Whole.”
Chicagoland continued to fall in love with Clyde’s Donuts, and Bill moved the bakery to 2500 W. Chicago Avenue in the Ukrainian Village in 1968. The main bakery stayed there until 1990, when a growing presence in in-store bakeries across the country required more space.
Nearly 100 years later, Clyde’s Donuts is entering its fourth generation and is still family-owned and managed. Now, the bakery is based in Addison, Illinois. The company that grew from a small store on Chicago's Webster Avenue now operates out of a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, and produces nearly one million delicious donuts per day.
Clyde's is proud to support community organizations, and is happy to celebrate the 81st anniversary of Donut Day with The Salvation Army.