If you're financially able, it would seem to make sense to increase the things you would need to the point where you could hand some out. I wouldn't bag them, I would hand them out individually, depending on need. Someone may have a box of 100 garbage bags, but just need TP. People with young children may not want candles, but really need a flashlight.

Generally speaking, needs are grouped by importance. In an at-home, generally short-term situation, you've got shelter and the need for first aid probably isn't great, so the list would probably go something like this:

1) Fire for heat, cooking or boiling drinking water. Lighters are quick and easy, but strike-anywhere matches can be 'subdivided' into plastic snack bags and spread farther.

1a)With limited burning materials available, a quick, cheap hobo stove would be invaluable: a large tin food can (emptied) and a can opener (church key). It works with a few charcoal briquets, conifer cones, twigs, sticks, construction debris. People often have quite a bit of food in their pantry, but no way to heat/cook it. Being able to provide hobo stoves to a dozen or more families would probably make you close to a god in your neighborhood.

2) Water will often be wasted by people who aren't used to conserving or survival problems. Stored water is great, of course, but clear plastic (polyethylene) tarps fastened along a fence, clothesline or railing and stretched out to drape into a container like a tub or clean garbage can will collect a lot of rainwater that won't need purification under most situations. Consider buying a large clear plastic tarp and cutting it into smaller pieces; a roll 10'x100' for ~$22 would make 20 5x10' rainwater collectors, working day and night when it rains.

3) Sanitation in the home almost always depends on water, but if you don't have drinking water, you often don't have flushing water, either. Using up gasoline for repeated trips to the river for 10 or 20 gallons of water at a time is less than smart. There is a free online book (including drawings and photos) called The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins that is excellent, where all you need is a standard 5-gallon plastic bucket and a $12 clip-on plastic toilet seat/lid. Clip-on toilet seat example. They are often available at local sporting goods stores for a similar price.

4) Food is something you could share, and if things get that bad, the more basic the food, the better. If there is a reliable source of water, some simple hobo stoves and matches, there is nothing wrong with cheap foods like rice, beans, spaghetti and sauces, spices, etc. If people turn up their noses at these things, they obviously aren't hungry enough. Buying bulk is cheaper. Dispense any grains/seeds/nuts into handy-sized sealed bags, then place in a freezer for 10-14 days to kill any insect eggs or larvae, or store with oxygen-absorber packs. If you have the room, you can store them there indefinitely. Some stores sell spices in bulk, too --WAAAAY cheaper, but choose carefully (if you're not much of a cook, ask someone who is).

5) Safety - here is where flashlights fit in. Flashlights need batteries. Sometimes batteries are all that are needed, people have the flashlights.

Also, organization and assistance between neighbors is often under-valued -- a stupid mistake. You know things they don't, so spread the word. They know how to do things you don't, so solicit their help and ask them to teach some basics to get everyone working together.

Sue