Photo by Liz Miller
Rex Hale needs some kosher chickens.
When he finds them—and, given his persistence and passion, there’s no doubt that he will—he’ll use the meat in massive batches of chicken noodle and matzo ball soups to be served during Passover at food pantries, churches, and shelters across the St. Louis region.
Finding those chickens is only one of the many, many plates Hale is spinning at the moment. In the days after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in the St. Louis region, Hale grew deeply concerned about how the global pandemic would hurt those who are already the most vulnerable in our community: the home and food insecure.
The project is really the vision of Alton, Illinois, attorney John Simmons, Hale says. Simmons has long spearheaded AltonWorks, an effort to revive downtown Alton, and he reached out to Hale with the idea to help feed people in the community in the wake of COVID-19. Hale knew that what was good for Alton would be good for the entire region, and Simmons agreed.
“We all need to step up and help each other in times like this,” Hale says. “We strive to serve as leaders in the community and catalyze the efforts to bring people together in times of need.”
The idea started out simple enough: Hale, who has dedicated his culinary career to working with area farmers, cheesemakers, and ranchers and sourcing their products, would seek donations from those same folks. Given the current mandate banning dine-in service at restaurants in Illinois and across the St. Louis region, Hale figured farmers were already struggling to sell products to restaurants, or at least in high volumes, and so maybe a few folks would chip in for a good cause.
Less than two weeks after first asking for donations from local farmers and food distributors, Hale has collected and shared more than 60,000 pounds of food at 50-plus sites across the region. Early and large donations of produce and eggs came from Double Star Farms in Illinois, while pork, chicken and beef was donated by Rain Crow Ranch in Missouri. That vendor list has now grown to encompass a litany of suppliers from both states.
The program has evolved from one that sources raw products to donate to shelters, pantries, and churches to a model where Hale and a small team of chefs are preparing full meals for those same sites. Over the past 12 days, Hale has had incredible success sourcing meat, poultry, vegetables, grain, and dairy from farmers and food distributors, but finding those local kosher chickens is currently proving a challenge.
Hale is preparing all of this food out of STL Foodworks, the commercial kitchen in the Central West End owned by Christy and Charlie Schlafly of Ford Hotel Supply. Pacing back and forth in the entryway, the chef calls up two Missouri chicken farmers. He first dials Matt Tiefenbrunn of Buttonwood Farm and then Ben Roberts from Ben Roberts' Heritage Poultry & Eggs, but neither have answers for him. “I understand, brother,” Hale says to Tiefenbrunn. “I hope you guys are doing well.”
This focus on supporting farmers and the community is what led Hale into restaurant kitchens some five decades ago. It’s also what led him to lend his talents and network to prepare food for those who don’t have the same resources in general, let alone during a pandemic.
“I felt an urge to make sure I could do this, because I really wasn’t sure anybody else could wrap their head around how to handle this,” Hale says. “I knew that I could connect the dots... For me, I don’t know what else I could do. This is what I’ve done my whole life.”
Photo by Liz Miller
When Hale talks about cooking in general, what he describes is more calling than career. Born in the 1950s and raised on his grandmother’s farm in rural Missouri, Hale has always felt a deep, personal connection to farming—he happily remembers digging up sweet potatoes on his grandma’s land as a kid, milking the cows, feeding the chickens, and making fresh pies in her farmhouse kitchen. He smiles as he describes the huge meals she would host on her land, often for 30 people at a time with family-style dishes made and shared with love. “I think that’s why I felt called to do [this now]—that’s what I grew up with, so it’s a fulfillment of that process,” Hale says.
While calling farmers and chefs and racing from one room to another at STL Foodworks, Hale drops his reading glasses. As he picks them up, he notices that one of the lenses has popped out.
“I’ve broken two pairs of glasses in two days, man,” Hale says with a laugh.
Maybe that’s because Hale is working long, crazy hours and balancing meal prep with greeting the farmers and food distributors who stop in at all hours to drop off products, as well as the folks stopping in to pick up boxes of meals for pantries and shelters. He’s building the plane while flying it.
In the span of one hour this past Saturday morning, five people arrive at the kitchen to either drop off food or pick up prepared meals for pantries and shelters.
One of those people, David Bohlen of Bohlen Family Farms, walks into the commercial kitchen with his young son, Dave, and a bag of broccoli rabe from his farm in Florissant. He’s worked with Hale for several years, first connecting when the chef was leading the kitchen at Boundary in St. Louis. When Bohlen learned what Hale was doing at STL Foodworks, he was eager to contribute.
“It’s very natural, honestly, for two reasons: It’s Rex, and whatever he’s doing, we’re behind him,” Bohlen says. “And the other reason is that everyone is going to need food right now. That’s what our food is meant for; that’s why we started growing food. This is meant to feed people, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do with it.”
Just behind Bohlen and his son is Steve Campbell, executive director of Peter & Paul Community Services in St. Louis. He's picking up food for his organization, which offers housing and supportive services to the homeless, with a focus on serving persons living with mental illness or HIV.
After loading Campbell's car with two days worth of food, Hale leads Bohlen to the kitchen, where chef Bryan Russo is making rye baguettes. Dave, who can only just see above the prep counters in the kitchen, spies the bread and his eyes widen. The room is enveloped in the warm, comforting scent of fresh bread baking as twangy music plays in the background.
A self-taught bread baker, Russo is one of the best in town. He previously worked as chef de cuisine at now-shuttered Público in University City and was most recently at 21 City Blocks before COVID-19 brought operations in kitchens across town to a near halt. Russo heard about what Hale was doing at STL Foodworks a few days ago and felt compelled to help.
The baguettes he’s forming and cutting today are made with fresh rye from the Mill at Janie’s Farm in Ashkum, Illinois, and a starter culture that incorporates beer from Old Bakery Beer in Alton. While Hale’s attention is on the bread, he calls up Harold Wilken, the farmer and owner of the Mill at Janie’s Farm, to see when he can stop in at STL Foodworks next. Wilken says he’s been on the road for long stretches this week, personally delivering his grains to people across the Midwest. He’ll be in St. Louis tomorrow, and he tells Hale he’s excited to try the baguettes.
The call ends and Hale quickly exits the kitchen, headed toward one of the walk-in freezers located at the back of the building to grab a pig’s foot from Rain Crow Ranch.
“We’ll take these out, warm them back up, take the skin off, and then pick the meat off of them,” Hale says, holding up a pig’s foot. The chef is all adrenaline and passion, and the swirl of activity around him seems to further fuel that energy. “And then we’ll roll that up, spice them, slice them in half, and put them with greens and maybe a gochujang mustard on the rye baguettes.”
Photo by Liz Miller
As Hale exits the walk-in, a truck from Fox River Dairy, a local specialty food distributor, pulls up out back. As is common for a small business, Fox River president Dan Probst himself hops out of the cab and begins unloading boxes of Marcoot Jersey Creamery cheese curds. These were donated by the Illinois creamery, as were apple-cinnamon chicken sausages from Williams Brothers Meat Market in Washington, Missouri. Both will end up in sandwiches, stews, or salads soon, Hale says.
As Probst and a colleague unload the truck, Hale heads back into the kitchen with the pig’s foot, ready to assemble a test sandwich with the cooling rye baguettes. Hale cuts back the skin, pierces into the meat underneath, and slides a piece of it onto a halved baguette before topping it with fresh broccoli rabe.
“David, make this look pretty, will you?” Hale asks Bohlen, gesturing toward a shelf stocked with oils, vinegars, sauces, and spices.
When Bohlen is finished, Hale asks the farmer and his son to try the sandwich. Before too long, the pair have to head out, though; it’s chilly today, and Bohlen wants to harvest some kale and rapini while the sugar content of both are still high. He says he’ll keep working in his fields until he’s told he can’t any longer.
After they leave, Hale, standing in the back of the building near a walk-in, gets a call from chef Michael Gallina, co-owner of Vicia and Winslow’s Table. Like so many restaurants right now, Vicia has temporarily closed, and Winslow’s Table has transitioned services to curbside family meals per a regional mandate from elected officials.
“Just come on down, man,” Hale says to Gallina. “We’re having a blast, and I would love to work with you on this. Bring whatever—we’ve got deliveries coming every day. We’re just trying to feed the community.”
When the call ends, Hale briefly pauses. He's not paused all morning.
The past week has seen enormous devastation for restaurants across the country, and here in the St. Louis region, there has been substantial rallying to support the small businesses and entrepreneurs who have built our vibrant local dining scene.
There is considerable fear in general, of course, and for the future of the restaurant industry specifically: that life as we know it moving forward will be forever changed by the COVID-19 pandemic, that millions of people will lose their jobs, and that the world will not be the same, including how restaurants function in our community. There are so many losses to grieve of every scale and scope, and all at once. Helping one another in whatever way we can amid the chaos feels like the only sure thing we all know how to do.
So if you have a line on local kosher chickens, give Hale a call. While so many of us are cooped up at home right now, which is what most of us can do to help decrease the spread of COVID-19, the chef will be cooking. It’s what he knows best: supporting the land and the people who tend it, and feeding the community he loves so dearly.
“When you get to do what you love to do, it’s not even work,” Hale says. “And who doesn’t need food? We all gotta eat, right? It’s real simple.”
If you’re interested in donating or volunteering to help Hale and his partners at AltonWorks feed the home and food insecure, the group will be releasing a contact number this week to share more information. This post will be updated with that number when it’s available.
Liz Miller has served as the managing editor of the Riverfront Times.
