World Flour Day 2026 Is Celebrated on March 20
On March 20 the international milling community will celebrate World Flour Day for the seventh time. This commemorative day was inaugurated in 2020 by the FlourWorld Museum and has since established itself as a fixture in the industry calendar. This year it marks the start of a new global perspective. The motto is “Flour is Life” and the focus is on regions where flour is much more than just a food. It’s a daily staff of life, source of energy and the prerequisite for education, health and development.
World Flour Day is an invitation to the entire value chain – from mills to bakeries to retailers – to highlight the importance of flour for food security. The day offers an opportunity to launch your own initiatives or support existing projects, whether through flour donations, the promotion of local food projects or other forms of engagement. In the spirit of ‘Giving Day’, the aim is to send a message together.
To kick off the new focus, the FlourWorld Museum will present an example from Kenya. The Dream Children’s Home initiative near Nairobi shows how fundamental flour can be to daily life. Over 200 children live and learn there. Chapati and ugali made of wheat and maize flour are literally their daily bread and meet most of their caloric needs. The school is open to children from the neighbourhood in addition to boarding students. What started as simple corrugated huts is now a solid, sturdy place of learning, community and preparation for the future.
This institution is representative of the reality of millions of people worldwide. In many regions flour is the central component of nutrition, often supplemented with vegetables and other foods. World Flour Day 2026 shows how closely flour is associated with social opportunities and how much it can contribute to development and participation in society.
The example from Kenya is the start of what will be a multi-year communicative journey around the world. The goal is to shine a light on the societal importance of flour worldwide and bring its role in global food security into sharper focus.
Peter Steiner, Global Head of Business Unit MC Mühlenchemie, explains the new direction: “MC Mühlenchemie is the patron of the FlourWorld Museum in Wittenburg and for many years has been committed to communicating the importance of flour. ‘Flour is Life’ is much more than just a motto. It’s a description of a worldwide reality. For many people flour doesn’t just mean daily bread. It creates the preconditions for stability, education and participation. As the global milling community, we have a responsibility to make these dependencies visible and help ensure that people have access to safe, affordable and culturally anchored foods. This takes not just awareness, but also solutions.”
A day for a worldwide perspective
March 20 was chosen for World Flour Day because it is the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere and the start of harvest season in the southern hemisphere. The day stands for beginnings, change and abundance. In 2026 it will be the start of an international narration on flour as a staff of life.
The FlourWorld Museum in Wittenburg is accompanying World Flour Day with the new www.worldflourday.com website. The museum houses the world’s largest collection of flour sacks, but it is also more than that. As a cultural institution it documents the importance of flour for human nutrition and its social, political and economic consequences, from the earliest times to the present day. Volkmar Wywiol, the founder of the FlourWorld Museum, sees the global perspective of World Flour Day as a continuation of the museum idea. “With the motto Flour.Power.Life, we tell the story of how flour has shaped the development of societies for thousands of years. This idea is now becoming visible across borders with World Flour Day. I hope that this day will encourage others to take action and pass on the power of flour in their own way, whether through flour donations, support for nutrition projects or simply by raising awareness of this fundamental staple food.”