NATCHEZ — The goal of the Natchez Senior Center Multi-Purpose Complex is to enhance the lives of senior citizens in the area, and Executive Director Sabrena Bartley said they work hard to do just that.

One way the center does that is through providing nutritional services to seniors.

“We do what we call congregate meals, meals served on site at the Natchez Senior Center every day Monday through Friday,” Bartley said. “We also have home-delivered meal services, and many of those people receive meals for seven days a week.”

Another is through teaching seniors literacy, healthy living and lifestyles.

Those may vary from exercise classes and activities to teaching seniors how to recognize a stroke or how to maintain a healthy weight and cook healthy food, Bartley said.

Likewise, the center also provides transportation for seniors who don’t have it.

“We take people to take care of their basic needs, grocery shopping, doctor’s visits, to visit loved ones — even to get to work,” Bartley said.

The center will provide transportation on Saturdays by request, and Bartley said it also will provide transportation for medical services such as cancer care or dialysis.

But the center also helps caregivers by providing senior day services.

“In some homes there are two and three generations in the home, and the individuals need to go to work, but they want to make sure their aunt, their mother or whoever can get a hot meal or get to the doctor, so we do that for them,” Bartley said.

In the last year, Bartley said she has seen more seniors requesting help for things like utility bill assistance, and she said anyone who wants to donate to that cause should make donations to the United Way of the Miss-Lou and specify that the funds be used for that purpose.

Similarly, she said she has seen more requests for help with toiletries, things like tooth paste and shaving supplies.

The center creates care packages with those items, but also likes to find creative ways to distribute the donations, Bartley said.

“We give them as bingo prizes to help make it fun, but it also benefits the seniors directly,” she said.

The center receives funding through grants from the Southwest Mississippi Planning and Development District, the Mississippi Department of Transportation, the City of Natchez, the Natchez-Adams Council on Aging and the United Way.

But it also accepts monetary and goods donations, and Bartley said donations can be made at the center’s 800 Washington St. location.