Hope Westall is #MadeForKnoxville.

Family, sustainability, conservation: these are the standards by which Hope guides her business. That business, Alt Route Meals, provides dehydrated plant-based food for trailblazers of all kinds. 

A trailblazer herself, Hope noticed the need for better packable plant-based meals after over a decade of chowing down on lackluster meals while adventuring. As she has perfected her recipes and grown her business, she has a new goal in mind: supporting the wild places she loves. 

When you purchase a meal from Alt Route, you will also be supporting this effort to protect areas that need it through volunteer work, education and donations. Alt Route Meals is certainly an alternate path, for good. 

“After a decade of 6,000+ miles hiked, over 100 peaks bagged and 6 out of 7 continents lightly explored, I had finally discovered the missing link. There were not enough options for plant-based, health conscience athletes and travelers. The time for boring flavors, unpronounceable ingredients and disappointing meals at the end of the day.” 

In Their Own Words..

Alt Route Meals is more than another dehydrated food company. It is a story, a passion, and an experience. After a decade of 6,000+ miles hiked, over 100 peaks bagged and 6 out of 7 continents lightly explored, I had finally discovered the missing link. There were not enough options for plant-based, health conscience athletes and travelers. The time for boring flavors, unpronounceable ingredients, and disappointing meals at the end of the day was done for me.

In the summer of 2018, I began working on a series of recipes to support myself on a year of upcoming adventures. Before I knew it the kitchen and dining room had turned into a small factory with every vegetable, grain, spice, appliance, dehydrator, and storage container you could imagine strewn about everywhere. I spent the remainder of that summer doing real-time product testing in the Colorado Rockies.

As the summer drew to a close I was left with 7 recipes that were going to support me along my 2019 adventures of summiting Kilimanjaro and thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. After several months of miles walked, peaks bagged, and meals consumed I was left with the realization that this chapter was about to come to an end. As most adventures draw to a close we are left with an unrivaled sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, accompanied by a void and the inexplicable nagging question of ‘What now?’ For me, I had discovered the answer and it was drawing me back home. 

I relocated back to my home state of Tennessee to make Alt Route Meals a dream come true. I knew I couldn’t do it alone, so I did what any good daughter would do. I recruited my wonderful mother to the team and we began our first family business. I am proud to say that Alt Route Meals is a company that has been built from a core set of standards from the beginning. Family. Sustainability. Conservation.

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