CHEYENNE - Soup kitchens around Wyoming are getting help from more than $100,000 in grants from the Wyoming Community Foundation.

The grants will help struggling soup kitchens amid the economic downturn. They've been getting fewer donations even as demand for their services has been rising.

Grants ranged from $500 for Community Outreach, the all-volunteer food bank in Greybull, to $5,000 for the St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Cheyenne. The Central Wyoming Rescue Mission in Casper also got a $5,000 grant.

Other grants included $1,000 for Messiah's Mall in Thermopolis and $3,000 for the Star Valley Senior Citizen Center, the Laramie-based Wyoming Community Foundation announced Wednesday.

In all, 32 community programs around Wyoming benefited from a total of $102,200.

The grants went out quickly. The program was announced a month ago and applications were due Jan. 21.

"We realized there was an immediate, unmet need that we could address because of the foresight of donors who have entrusted the community foundation with unrestricted funds. This allows us to be responsive and ready for unanticipated community problems," Arne Jorgensen, chairman of the foundation's distribution committee, said in a release.

Funding came from $50,000 in unrestricted donations matched by gifts from the Flying V Donor Advised Fund, John W. Hay Jr. Family Fund, Kim and Mary Kay Love Family Donor Advised Endowment Fund, Susan McMurry Samuelson Donor Advised Fund, and the Newell B. Sargent Foundation.

The foundation received grant requests from 62 nonprofits that sought a total of $277,000.