Neighbors Matter: It All Started With Egg Salad

Published on September 10, 2026 as part of Green Mountain Justice’s “Neigbor(s) Matter(s)” series in partnership with the Addison Independent.

I’d been on the text chain for about two weeks when a request for an egg salad sandwich came through. I’d been nervously reading the various requests, comments, updates and information and wondered when something I could do would surface. Egg salad I could do. I learned who made the request and sent a private text to her. Once I started thinking about making egg salad for someone else my spiraling thoughts wondered: with pickles, how about celery, how much mayo, on bread or a roll? So I asked a few (all) questions and then felt I could meet the request.

The text chain came from Green Mountain Justice (GMJ), an organization that facilitates a Neighbor Care group out of my church in Middlebury, the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society, known most often as CVUUS. I met Tom Morgan, the founder of GMJ, through a book discussion group there. Over several years we read about the inequities in our world, country and local community. At my retirement I wanted to find ways to spend my time directly helping others that might work best for the community in which I live.

Four years in I’ve learned that it is more helpful to me and others if what I spend my time doing is directly connected in personal ways with real people who I can help directly. Like making egg salad for a neighbor.

At Green Mountain Justice I am part of the Neighbor Care network. Being part of GMJ has provided me with opportunities to demonstrate and live my values and expend my privilege to lift others who are disenfranchised. Attending a monthly potluck with the people in our Neighbor Care network has meant I know people who live right here who I otherwise might have walked by and ignored. I was nervous attending my first potluck wondering how I might be perceived. What I’ve seen is that by consistently showing up there is a difference in my relationship with others there.

Now that I have gotten to know Heidi, the woman who requested egg salad, I realize that our paths have likely crossed in several areas over the years and yet I was blind to her lived experiences. Seeing her and helping her regularly reminds me of our shared humanity and what we have to offer one another. When I delivered the egg salad to her home I briefly met her partner as she couldn’t come to the door. We met a few weeks later when she asked if I could take her to the grocery store to help her get school snacks for her three kids. She was able to use a grocery store gift card from GMJ to help stretch her budget at the end of the month. We shared the thrill of finding some items she needed that were on sale. We also chatted about ourselves while we were in the car as one does when meeting someone for the first time. I felt good about being able to help Heidi and her kids directly and was happy to learn we had a few other points of connection.

Now, after six months or so, I see Heidi several times a month and connect often through texting. I check in to see how she’s feeling. She has some medical issues resulting from a horrific car accident almost ten years ago. Recently Heidi had dental work which meant she had to eat soft foods for about six weeks. I reached out to the text chain, explained the situation and then collected food from neighbors to help her have things she could comfortably eat. Those in the neighbor group really stepped up in practical and supportive ways to support Heidi and her family.

I’ve given her rides to various places when her car is not working. This summer that was mostly to pick up the meals for her kids at the Summer Meals Program. I’ve also brought her to the monthly GMJ Neighbor Care potluck. Each time we are together more bits of ourselves are shared. We share a desire to help and support others in the group. Recently she offered a rollator walker she no longer used to someone who really needed it and I was able to pick it up and drive it to the other person.

I’ve met Heidi’s kids at various times. They are friendly and clearly love their mom a lot. She is a great mom: very patient and at the same time firm around decisions, and there is always dialog between them. She is very intentional in how she’s raising them. There is growing trust between me and the kids. I recently stopped by to drop something off while Heidi was away. The two youngest boys came out on the stoop and we had a conversation about what was happening now that it is the start of school and their upcoming birthdays this month.

Connecting with Heidi has helped me live my UU values and it lifts my spirits as I get to know her better. She makes me laugh and allows me to connect on a human level with someone whose lived experience is so different from mine, but whose kindness and compassion is similar. This is what it is to live in community with our neighbors.

You can learn more about Heidi in her own words here. Her story is number five of GMJ’s podcast series, Voices from the Edge.

Ellen is a retired middle school teacher and resident camp director. She has long been interested in housing issues in Vermont. After retiring, she joined a new group at Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society (CVUUS) to address the state’s housing crisis. Ellen is an active board member and volunteer with HomeShare Vermont and GMJ. She models our proximity principle, showing that personal connections with neighbors of difference can transform our world.

Care. Connect. Collaborate.

Learn more and support our work at greenmountainjustice.org.