In 2016, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old black school cafeteria supervisor, was fatally shot by Minnesota police during a traffic stop.
Castile by many accounts was a caring figure at the J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet School. Now, his mother, Valerie Castile, is administering the Philando Castile Relief Foundation with some of the money from an insurance settlement arising from her son’s death.
One of her projects: giving $8,000 to a Minnesota high school to settle school lunch debts, NPR reported.
“The kids shouldn’t have a debt hanging over their heads, and the parents shouldn’t either. I just believe that the schools should furnish free meals for our children,” Valerie told the radio network.
It is not a radical idea. We wish it were one that school districts in Southwest Colorado would take to heart, especially now as state funding for kindergarten will free up some resources. We know there are many needs, but this bids fair to be one that at least is on par with administrative costs.
Carlton Jenkins, superintendent of Robbinsdale, Minnesota, area schools, told NPR Castile’s gift “was a huge humanitarian act in our community.” That should not be surprising. It seems to us it would take an unusually hard-hearted district to disdain such a donation.
Valerie told NPR she started the foundation to keep her son alive: Philando “frequently paid for the lunches of students who owed money or couldn’t afford them.”
