Opinion: Man on the Street Asks, What’s Going on at the Senior Center These Days?

This week a local man returned to his former workplace at the Bangs Community Center, just to check in. Most folks don’t get the opportunity to see things from the inside, but he had taken advantage of the Older Americans’ Act of 1965 (remember the ‘Great Society’ programs—voting rights, expansion of health care coverage, and day care for all?). This federal legislation of 1965 established local citizens’ boards to oversee local communities and meet the needs of their older residents in a changing society, as people were beginning to live longer in retirement than in the past. These boards were mandated to oversee these needs through a Council on Aging (COA), which was handed the bricks and mortar of the Senior Center. Semi-governmental organizations were set up: the Area Agency on Aging Service, staffed with professional providers (Highland Valley Elder Services in this area) was linked to the COA through a staffer who attended the monthly COA business meetings in each town serviced. A small rider was added to the Act “to give them work” as well, and that’s where our man above enters. Up to a half week’s work with minimum wage pay was budgeted for anyone so employed, and that was him, for two years. When he returned this week to visit, he noticed some changes had occurred since he had left employment in this system.

During his tenure, just before COVID, the Meals on Wheels (MoW) program (also courtesy of the Act of ’65) serviced four or five routes throughout the town and to the town lines, and a double loop around the “Bangs Quad” (i.e. Ann Whalen’s five floors and the Clark’s six). It also had a very popular meal program contributed by the local university. Physicians and other health professionals, who supplied the majority of referrals to it, loved this second program for its greater flexibility in last-minute delivery scheduling.

Health professionals, including nutritionists, social workers, and registered dietitians, play a critical role in Meals on Wheels programs by shifting the focus from simple food delivery to comprehensive, “more than a meal” health support. They are involved in designing tailored nutrition plans, assessing client health risks, and coordinating with healthcare systems to manage chronic conditions and prevent unnecessary hospitalizations

As UMass Dining has been ranked the best campus food in the nation for nine years running, the town’s residents loved the food. Our local man learned that UMass participation had been canceled during the COVID pandemic and not invited back when the rest of MoW started up again. 

Currently the traditional 40 % local funding for MoW is no longer met by the University. Highland Valley continues with the other 60% as mandated by the Act. As of March 2026, federal funding for the program was frozen but not canceled, meaning that the program will be able to serve fewer seniors in the coming year. Moreover. it seems the ‘congregate meal’ (traditionally a 15-25 person mid-day meal in the Bangs ground floor’s Large Activities Room) is also ‘defunct’. Note that what most residents call the “Bangs Senior Center” is a misnomer. It might more accurately be called “Community Center” as just five offices and three ‘lounges’ are occupied by the senior center, I’d say just 10-15 percent of the building.

Our local man noted a change to the office area beside the lobby/lounge, where he once entered the senior center “suite”. The staff area now has a much more closed feel without the earlier free flow between staff and residents. It seemed to send a new message of “us/you” and looks a bit like a fortress compared to the previous several decades. 

He looked at the staff list and could not recall it ever being this large in his 30 years of residence in the town. No more busy interactions among a group of older folks stuffing nearly 3,000  newsletters out to their peers every other month.  He noted the three missing desks in this lounge/lobby where busy older volunteers had worked at projects benefiting peers.  

Our local man had heard about an elder service needs assessment but that had been about a year ago without any publication since. “Yes, this is the town known as ‘take-another-study Amherst,’ ” he mused.  Looking at his shoes he nodded his white head and thought to himself, “More changes, just part of getting older,” yet felt disenfranchised by what he saw.  

Chad Fuller is a resident of Amherst, a founding member of Zero Waste Amherst, and a former organizational development/community development consultant.