Joy Seward and her co-founder met on a NOLS course — operating on public land — and launched their company together after it ended. Before their first sale, they knew they wanted to give back. They joined The Conservation Alliance and haven’t looked back.

Joy is a co-founder of RecPak, an ultra-lightweight meal for endurance athletes and backpackers, and an expedition guide who has spent over a year of her life — cumulatively — in wilderness areas. She knows better than most what public lands make possible. And she’s here to make the case that small businesses don’t have an excuse to sit this one out.

 

A note from Missy: I get asked a lot about how small businesses can get involved in advocacy, and the answer I always wish I had is exactly what Joy gives in this episode. You don’t have to be REI. You don’t have to have a legal team or a lobbying budget. You just have to be willing to direct your customers somewhere useful. Joy’s whole brand was built on public lands — and she’s proof that you can build a mission into a company from day one, not as an afterthought.

title card with trees covered in fall yellow leaves behind it

Episode Guest

Joy Seward — Co-Founder RecPak

Sign the Petition — Take Action Now

→ savepubliclands.us

Four fields: first name, last name, zip code, email. Submit. Then share it with five people — or, if you’re a business, put the link in your bio and tell your customers.

Three demands:

  • No sell-offs of America’s public lands
  • No backroom deals that cut everyday people out of the process
  • No giveaways to foreign mining companies

Signatures will be delivered to Congress and state houses on National Public Lands Day, September 26th, 2026.

Show Notes & Links

Transcript

Save Public Lands: Why Small Businesses Are Showing Up
The Parks Podcast, Episode 86 | Joy Seward, Co-Founder, RecPak
Welcome and Why Public Lands Matter to RecPak

Missy Rentz: In today’s episode, I’m really excited to welcome Joy Seward to The Parks Podcast. Joy is the co-founder of RecPak. Joy, welcome.

Joy Seward: Hey, thanks so much for having me.

Missy: I’m so excited to have you on. Today, we are revisiting Save Public Lands. You are the fourth episode in a series that we are doing really to raise awareness for the Save Public Lands initiative. Let’s kick it off just with — why are public lands so important?

Joy: Yeah. I have a unique story. RecPak was actually started — and my involvement started — through sharing of public lands. I was on a NOLS course, and one of my students, Deed, had the product, had the concept, and after that course we launched the business together. And I always like to remind ourselves that we wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for that course that got to operate on public land. So it’s really the foundation of how the gears started getting turning with this company.

Missy: I guess we should actually backtrack and go — what is RecPak?

Joy: Yeah, that’s a great question. So we are an ultra-lightweight meal for endurance athletes, backpackers, thru-hikers, runners. It’s a powder that you add water to. You shake it up and drink, and you get 700 calories and 42 grams of protein all in 6.7 ounces — a super lightweight meal, and you don’t need a stove or to heat up anything. So the idea is we wanted to give the convenience of a snack, but the nutritional profile of a meal.

Missy: Yeah, and that nutrition is hard to come by — or can be hard to come by — when you’re out on public land. So I think it’s so important what you’re doing. And I’ve had them, and they’re delicious.

Joy: Oh, thank you. I didn’t realize that. That’s awesome.

Why Advocacy Was a Priority from Day One

Missy: So obviously advocacy — we’re here for advocating in this series. What is being part of this advocacy group, and why is that so important to you?

Joy: Yeah, when we launched the company, one of the first moves we did — a year into it — was join The Conservation Alliance, because we’ve always been a mission-centered brand and wanted to give back in all these different ways, and we wanted to be able to align with an organization that could propel that. So before we even had our first sale, we always knew we wanted to give back in different capacities. It started off with donating to Ukraine efforts, and then donating to expeditions and education programs, and then The Conservation Alliance was just like a harness of our energy — we can join a bunch of different brands and get our voices out and have more of an organized path for it.

Missy: And in addition to RecPak, you are also an expedition guide in the Tetons. A lot of your life is around public lands, and you guide people on how to enjoy our public lands on a regular basis.

Joy: Yeah, a lot of wilderness areas — which I’m really fortunate to spend a large part of my life in. I think yesterday I counted it up, and if you add up all the days, it’s over a year of my life out in wilderness areas teaching people to be out there. It’s the foundation. It’s why we started our company. It’s what we wanna encourage more people to get out and do. And I always would tell my students — the coolest thing about being in America is we have all this land designation, and one of them is wilderness areas that takes a lot of planning and prepping to get into, but it’s just the best resource we have accessible. Whether you’re an alpinist, a rock climber, a hunter — we all get to enjoy and recreate on our public lands, and it makes America so unique and valuable.

How Small Businesses Can Advocate — No Excuses

Missy: I hear a lot of times, when it comes to advocacy and you start to talk to companies, a lot of organizations will come up with “It’s too expensive to advocate” or “I don’t know how to advocate.” But you are a relatively new business, and that was such a priority for you. What are ways that small businesses can advocate for public lands?

Joy: First of all, I’d say The Conservation Alliance makes it a very low barrier of entry for small businesses. So it’s not like you have to be a big conglomeration to jump in and be a part of these organizations. So I think that’s one myth to take down. And as we grow our business, we just wanna make sure that we’re aligned with conservation. There’s some really low-hanging fruit you can grab — whether that’s social media videos, or when you’re tabling, making sure people are aware of conservation efforts. We’ve done a lot with the Roadless Rule campaign, because that’s so important to all of us. And that is just getting the word out and then doing the work. I think anyone at any size can jump in on those efforts.

Missy: Yeah. I feel like there’s this — what is going on in saving our public lands impacts everybody. And in a world where we’re just bombarded with messaging, find what is true to your passion, true to your heart. Rather than getting messy with all these sorts of messages, find something that’s meaningful to you and then just go all in on it.

Joy: Totally. With the Roadless Rule right now, the comment period is open. And so it’s everyone’s job to get their word out and to speak about how you want your land to be managed. And so for us as a small business, we could just ask everyone that buys a product or that tunes into our socials — “Hey, you have this opportunity to speak up. This is where you can do it.” It’s just direction and funneling of messages. So I think there’s no barrier of entry besides doing the work. At any size of a brand, you can put in the time.

Missy: Yeah. And the Roadless Rule is something we’ve done a couple of episodes on, so I’ll put notes in this episode for not only the petition for Save Public Lands, but for the Roadless Rule public comment as well.

Joy: Oh, awesome. Thank you.

How to Participate in Save Public Lands

Missy: How can people participate in the Save Public Lands initiative?

Joy: Super, super easy. You just have to sign up.

Missy: This petition is, Joy — it’s crazy easy. You click on the link and it’s first name, last name, zip code, submit. That’s it. It’s the easiest one. And this is a proactive initiative, so this is letting our politicians know we all care about public lands more broadly. It’s less about one particular issue. And you can go to savepubliclands.us to sign the petition — and I’ll put links in our show notes and on all of our socials.

Joy: Awesome. And RecPak will have a link in the bio, so it’s pretty easy to get your word out.

Missy: Perfect. That’s amazing.

What Public Lands Mean to Joy

Missy: Now, before we wrap it up — from a personal perspective, what do public lands mean to you?

Joy: Oh my gosh. They mean so much opportunity. I think most of my goals and ambitions and dreams circulate around what I get to do on public lands — whether it’s climbing or skiing or progressing in my skillset. It all happens on these public lands. So what they mean to me — they mean so much opportunity and joy. And it’s why we do our day jobs, so we can go out to our public lands afterwards and recreate.

Missy: I love it. Again, go to savepubliclands.us to sign the petition. It’s open until September 26th, which is National Public Lands Day. Joy, thank you so much for being part of this, for telling us about how you all at RecPak activate and how other small businesses can get involved in making sure they are helping protect our public lands.

Joy: Well, yeah, thanks for getting the word out. Everyone can sign up and get their name out there. It’s pretty awesome.

Missy: Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to this episode. Until next time — we’ll see you in the parks.

Music for The Parks Podcast is performed and produced by Porter Hardy. Follow us @TheParksPodcast or visit TheParksPodcast.com.