Council on Aging approves senior meal pricing survey

Council on Aging · Meeting of February 17, 2026

Pepperell Council on Aging moves toward a possible senior lunch price hike but takes no vote. Director Bethany Loveless told the board a $4 meal now costs $7.65 to prepare, and members voted unanimously to send seniors a survey on what they would pay. Resident Bruce Kramer said he could absorb an increase but worried others "coming three or four or five times a week" would face a hardship; Loveless said staff already issue discreet, subsidized lunch punch cards to anyone in financial need, with "no stigma attached." The board also accepted a director's report noting a townwide salary review found the center's staff pay undervalued, prompting raises for Loveless and three staffers, and heard from Friends of Pepperell Seniors president Linda Bisbo that a Valentine's Day raffle raised $266 and the group revised its bylaws for the first time in over a decade.

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Source: the Council on Aging meeting of February 17, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.