Karma Bags

Care packages assembled with love and distributed to unhoused community members across Arizona

What Are Karma Bags?

Karma Bags turn simple acts of kindness into meaningful support for unhoused neighbors. What began with volunteers sharing water and snacks near the Immigration Courthouse has grown into a community "stuff-raising" project that provides bags filled with food, water, and hygiene essentials.

We partner with groups to collect supplies, assemble Karma Bags, and share them through outreach days and everyday acts of compassion. Want to help? Sign up for our newsletter or reach out to host a bag-making gathering.

How Karma Bags Reach People

There is no single way a Karma Bag gets from our hands to someone who needs it — and that is by design. We want every volunteer to feel empowered to act whenever and wherever they see a need.

Bags in the Car

Most of our volunteers keep a supply of Karma Bags in their car at all times. When they spot an unhoused neighbor — at an intersection, outside a store, near a park — they stop and offer a bag. No event, no schedule, no coordinator needed. Just a person, a bag, and a moment of human connection.

Organized Drive-Arounds

Sometimes we load up a car — or several cars — with a large supply of bags and a group of volunteers heads out together to look for unhoused people to help. These outreach drives let us cover more ground and distribute more bags in a single afternoon. They are also a great way for new volunteers to get comfortable with outreach alongside more experienced members.

Host a Karma Bag Building Party

One of the most joyful ways to support Karma Bags is to gather your community — your book club, your faith group, your neighborhood association, your workplace — and spend an afternoon building bags together. We call them Karma Bag Building Parties, and they are exactly what they sound like: people coming together, filling bags with care, and sending them out into the world.

Stand Indivisible Scottsdale Leads the Way

Stand Indivisible Scottsdale has been hosting quarterly Karma Bag Building Parties for our project. Their members purchase supplies, gather together to assemble the bags, and then donate the finished bags to us to hand out. It is a beautiful model — community organizing that turns into direct, tangible help for our unhoused neighbors. We are deeply grateful for their partnership and inspired by their example.

How to Host Your Own

1
Gather your group — any size works, from 5 people to 50.
2
Use our wish list below to shop for supplies. You can split the list among members or pool money to shop together.
3
Set a date, put on some music, and assemble the bags together. It usually takes a couple of hours and is genuinely fun.
4
Donate the finished bags to us to distribute, or hand them out yourselves — either way, they reach people who need them.
5
Reach out to us at sam@mandysproject.org to let us know you are planning a party. We can help with guidance, supply tips, and coordination.

Email us to plan your party

Build and Distribute Bags on Your Own

You do not need to be an official Mandy's Project volunteer to make and hand out Karma Bags. Anyone can do it. If you want to fill a few bags and keep them in your car to give out when you see someone in need, we think that is wonderful.

Use our wish list as a guide for what to include. A good Karma Bag has a mix of food, water, and at least one or two practical items like socks, wipes, or a poncho. Add a note of encouragement — people treasure those more than you might expect.

If you want to coordinate with us — to donate bags you have made, join an organized drive-around, or get connected with other volunteers in your area — reach out anytime at sam@mandysproject.org.