Fundraiser honouring Castile pays off students’ lunch debt

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A fundraising campaign honouring Philando Castile has raised enough money to pay the debt of students enrolled in a federal school lunch program in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The fundraiser was created in memory of Castile, a school cafeteria supervisor who was shot and killed by a police officer in 2016 in suburban St. Paul. Last week the campaign, called Philando Feeds the Children, presented a $35,000 check to the school district.

Combined with a $10,000 donation last October, Stacy Koppen (KOH’-pen), the district’s director of nutrition services, says that clears the lunch debt of nearly 1,800 students who qualify for free or reduced lunches.

Pamela Fergus, a psychology professor at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, initiated the fundraiser . As of Monday, the campaign had raised more than $155,000.