Kate Glenn

Kate Glenn grew up in Fairport, a suburb of Rochester, New York. It was there that she took her first yoga classes as a young teen with Molly Huff. An athlete who grew up playing softball, volleyball, and rowing crew, Kate saw yoga as a great stretching routine and relaxation method.

Around the time she was starting to get into yoga, Kate committed herself to being vegetarian. Right before her 13th birthday, she bought a Goldfinger CD. Goldfinger was a punk band known for vegan activism. Upon reading the CD insert, Kate reflected on how much she respected animals (including her pet cats), and on the fact that she was eating them anyway. This seemed hypocritical and illogical, so Kate did what she felt was right. She stopped eating animals, and has never looked back.

About 12 years after becoming lacto-ovo vegetarian, Kate went on to become vegan. This time, it was another media influence, the documentary Vegucated, that helped Kate to find her path. Vegucated showed Kate that even three random people found through Craigslist could become vegan. The documentary shattered her personal stigma against vegans for being “too weird, radical, and preachy”. Vegucated also added plenty of incentive for Kate to decide she didn’t want to contribute to the dairy and egg industry anymore. It was like there was a switch that flipped inside of her and woke her up to the fact that dairy cows actually suffer more than cows raised for slaughter. The transition started as an experiment—Kate knew she wanted to be vegan, but did not know if she could give up cheese. Kate chose the traditional Christian time of sacrifice, Lent, to make the change. In that time, she amped up her cooking skills, which is necessary when you’re a vegan who is attempting to stick to a budget. Cooking delicious and varied meals for herself made Kate realize how great it was not to use any animal products.

Shortly after that, Kate started member-working at the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany after she had lost all hope of finding a steady full-time job. Unbeknownst to her, Kate would be hired by Honest Weight a few months later after the co-op changed locations and needed to increase staff to fill the new space. She has gone from stocking the floor to buying produce and working directly with local farmers. Currently, Kate works as assistant manager for the produce department.

Yoga has helped Kate feel better during her low points and to feel awesome during her high points. Although she is not entirely consistent in her yoga practice (sometimes she focuses on running or high intensity interval training workouts instead) she always feels the most balanced in mind and body after a yoga session. To Kate, coming back to the mat is just like riding a bike—it doesn’t take much to jump back into the flow after a hiatus.

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