calles y sueños

“Castile, who was known by friends as Phil, was a cafeteria supervisor at J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet School in Saint Paul, Minn., where he memorized the names of the 500 children he served every day — along with their food allergies, his former coworker said.

“He remembered their names. He remembered who couldn’t have milk. He knew what they could have to eat and what they couldn’t,” Joan Edman, a recently retired paraprofessional at the school, told TIME.

Parents, several of whom rallied for justice outside the tight-knit school Thursday, said they felt safe knowing Castile was in charge of their children’s food and said Castile transformed the cafeteria into a positive and cheerful space. “He was a fixture. I was always happy to see him around school. The cafeteria was a pretty happy place. He was part of the community and an important one,” Andrew Karre, whose 8-year-old son attends J.J. Hill, told TIME.”