Our Story

Here's How We Started Our Journey

Lee and Kelly Althoff are the owners and operators of Country Rhodes Catering. Lee and Kelly’s parents are both successful entrepreneurs, so owning their own business was always a dream for the couple. They took over the business in May of 2019.

Lee resigned from being a special education teacher to work for the business full time, while Kelly continued to teach. In December of 2021, Kelly also resigned from teaching to work for Country Rhodes and be a stay-at-home mom. 

2019 was a very busy summer for the Althoffs – a month after becoming business owners, they were married. In July, they found out they were expecting their first baby. Nora Lynn was born on March 11th, 2020, the day COVID-19 was officially declared a worldwide pandemic. 

Lee was thinking quick on his feet and decided to add a food truck to the business model. While large corporations were closed to caterers during the pandemic, Lee and Kelly along with their head chef, Aaron Cripe, were busy food trucking throughout southern Illinois. In June of 2021, they sold the small food truck to focus the business on 400+ person catering events. 

Country Rhodes serves a wide variety of menu options to large corporations throughout the Midwest region. We pride ourselves on our service and our unique ability to cook fresh food on-site (no matter the time of day) by using our 40-foot mobile kitchens. Pre-COVID, we would serve our food buffet style, but we are now equipped to individually package meals only minutes before your associates eat our delicious food.