Fundraiser Honoring Castile Pays Off Students’ Lunch Debt

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) _ A fundraising campaign honoring Philando Castile has raised enough money to pay the debt of students enrolled in a federal school lunch program in St. Paul.

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, 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.