Marshalltown is a community of approximately 28,000 that has undergone tremendous change in the past 15 years. Today's Marshalltown is a microcosm of our country in the future. For example, Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) is a majority-minority district. While Latino students are the largest of the ethnic populations, over 50 languages are spoken by students in the district. With 1,828 such students, it has the third largest number and the third largest percentage of English language learners in the state of Iowa. This population is constantly churning, with over 1,000 persons from Burma (largely families from refugee camps in Thailand) arriving in the last few years, among them an estimated 600 children under the age of 18. This particular “new” population has many ethnic clans speaking many dialects. This ever-changing population is due to recruitment by the largest employer in the community — JBS Swift & Co. — to staff a pork processing plant.

In addition, the majority of children and families in the district qualify for the free and reduced lunch program (FRL); in the 2015 – 16 school year this included 71% of all enrolled students. This is one of the highest rates in the state of Iowa; MCSD ranks 9th highest in the state of the number of children meeting FRL guidelines and 8th highest in the state in the percentage of children. MCSD reports that 90% of these FRL-qualified students meet the free lunch income guidelines, which for a family of four is less than $36,933 for a year.