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[REVIEW]
Meat with a Mission Have A Cow serves its community with grass-fed beef burgers in a charming cafe setting Written by
CHERYL BAEHR Have A Cow Urban Farm Store and Cafe 2742 Lafayette Avenue, 314-261-0305. Mon.-Sat. 7.a.m.-3 p.m. (Closed Sundays.)
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teve St. Pierre will never forget the reactions from the people in his circle when he told them that he was leaving behind his home in Edwardsville, Illinois, and moving his family to north St. Louis. Instead of quizzical looks, questions about his motivations and plans, or words of encouragement, the comments that were thrown his way ranged from doom to gloom. Why on earth would he do such a thing? Did he not realize he was going to ruin his young children’s lives? Wasn’t he scared? St. Pierre wasn’t necessarily taken aback, because he, too, had similar questions. Edwardsville had been his home for eighteen years; there, he, his wife Lisa and their three young children had good lives, a nice home, a successful toy store and by all markers were doing well. However, St. Pierre could not help but feel that he was being called to do something different. He describes the feeling as a crisis of faith wherein he began questioning the Christian tradition he had been brought up in and what it really meant. These questions got even more urgent while on a mission to Kenya with his church. There, he was particularly moved by the story of a seven-year-old girl who had lost both her parents to AIDS and had recently been attacked while manning her uncle’s home, and he questioned how the God he believes in could allow such suffering. That’s when it hit him: To truly live in the love he wanted to live in, he had to enter
A delicious mission: Field Greens salad, The Whole Farm burger, sides, cinnamon roll, The Porker sandwich and pancakes. | MABEL SUEN
Co-owners Steve and Lisa St. Pierre with their daughter Grace. | MABEL SUEN into the places where that seemed to be lacking. When he left for the trip, he thought that place might be Kenya. However, before returning to the States, he realized that he was being called somewhere a little closer to home. He shared his thoughts with his wife, and less than a week after landing home, they were looking at a house off of oodfellow Boulevard, five blocks north of the Delmar Loop. They closed on it a month later, packed
up their belongings, and left Edwardsville to start their new life in the community they wanted to serve. That service took the form of Restore St. Louis, a ministry that helps people in the community with things like home repair, health care and tutoring. The organization also started a school and put significant effort into trying to combat human tra cking in the area — tremendously important efforts but, as St. Pierre
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would come to realize after a conversation with a local gang member, efforts that were incomplete. During that talk, the young man in question told St. Pierre that, while he appreciated all that he was doing, what his community really needed was jobs. His words hit St. Pierre hard, and while on a plane back from a speaking engagement, St. Pierre started sketching out a plan for what a jobs-focused ministry would look like. By the time he landed, he had the full plan for Have A Cow Cattle Company, Urban Farm Store and Café. To call the entire Have A Cow operation ambitious is an understatement. Though they had no farming experience, the St. Pierres bought a 180-acre cattle ranch in Owensville, Missouri, in 2017 and established a herd to begin producing grass-fed beef. Four years later, that beef is sold directly to consumers and at Have A Cow’s Urban Farm Store and Cafe, which is located in St. Louis’ Gate District. All three prongs of the outfit — the farm, the store and the restaurant — exist with the intention of providing job opportunities for people throughout the St. Louis community. St. Pierre admits it’s a corny thing
AUGUST 25-31, 2021
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