Poverty abounds in Warffum. Lots of interest in day on poverty and charity

The 65-year-old museum offered a full program following the opening last autumn of the redesigned Gasthuis on the museum grounds. Including poverty soup, a walk for the poor, tear-jerkers and a real symposium on poverty in the Spijslokaal.

The outdoor walk was special, which took place both in the morning and in the afternoon. Together with the Village Guides Warffum, writer/journalist Louis Stiller and museum director Stijn van Genuchten gave a tour of historical places in the village. Along the way, an explanation was given about how poorer residents of Warffum survived with the help of the Grietje Reinders Foundation or with assistance from the church.

Around noon, much use was made of the useful ‘poor soup’, prepared according to the example of an old recipe from 1812 from the Food Distribution Commission.

Historian Henk Boels’ lecture on the background of this earlier form of charity and Janneke Pietersma’s reading from the Groningen novel Koos by Warffumer writer Benjamin Broekema (1904-1942) also attracted quite a crowd.

The musicians Saskia Holla, Marjolijn Mellema and Rob Vlaar performed historical tearjerkers on the museum grounds in the afternoon. It was a nice place to be there with the increasingly nice weather.