An online fundraiser launched in memory of Philando Castile has helped clear student lunch debt in a Minnesota school district.
Philando Feeds the Children, launched by Pam Fergus, has raised about $111,000 to help reduce student lunch debt, a far cry from its original $5,000 goal.
An update on the fundraiser’s campaign page reads, “St. Paul Public Schools System has 56 schools. K-12. And this fund, Philando Castile Feeds the Children, just paid off the lunch debt for all of them!!!! That means that no parent of the 37,000 kids who eat meals at school need to worry about how to pay that overdue debt.”
Castile, who was killed by a police officer during a traffic stop, was a school nutrition supervisor who was known to help kids who couldn’t afford lunch by paying from his own pocket.
In 2016, Castile’s former high school, St. Paul Central High, launched a scholarship in his honor with donations for the scholarship exceeding expectations.
Fergus told CNN that she hopes to continue raising money through the charity, “I don’t know how much it would take to help the whole state of Minnesota. There is no end goal. Basically, I want a million bucks in there.”