Jouke de Vries presents Ubbo Emmius medal to Maria Jongsma

Maria Jongsma, director of the Food Bank Groningen, received the Ubbo Emmius medal on 11 May from Chairman of the Board of the University of Groningen (UG) Jouke de Vries. By awarding her the Ubbo Emmius medal for social merit, the UG wants to put her and her fellow volunteers of the Voedselbank in the limelight. The presentation was on the recommendation of the Groninger University Fund (GUF).

The presentation took place during the special symposium "Social dichotomy: what do we do about it? There were four speakers: Prof Sjoerd Beugelsdijk (FEB), Dr. Arjan Vliegenthart (NIBUD), Mr. Carine Bloemhoff (Groningen alderman) and Prof Janneke Plantenga (UU). The presentation then took place, after which Maria gave her acceptance speech. In it she argued passionately for childcare from 0.5 years instead of 2.5 years, also (especially) for children of non-working parents, because precisely in the first 1000 days of a child's life the difference is made. Read more about this in Dagblad van het Noorden.

In the auditorium of the Academy Building of the UG, Jongsma received the medal. Present at the presentation were family, friends and colleagues of hers, as well as many people involved in fighting poverty in Groningen, such as colleagues from the Food Bank and the Clothing Bank.

Read the booklet of speeches delivered at the presentation of the medal (in Dutch).

About the Ubbo Emmius medal

The Ubbo Emmius medal was established in 1964 by the Groninger University Fund on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the UG. There are two versions of the medal: one for scientific merit and one for social merit. Both medals are awarded once every five years.