Food is one of life's most basic necessities. However, in 2007, 36.2 million Americans, including 12.4 million children, either did not have enough food or feared that they wouldn’t have enough at some point during the year. This problem has only intensified in the subsequent two years due to spikes in food prices and a recession that has expanded the demand for food stamps and emergency food services while driving people to increasingly purchase cheaper, but less nutritious foods.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a provacative discussion of the current data on hunger and food insecurity, the recovery package and other federal legislation that can help address the problem, the impact of lower incomes on food choices and household nutrition, and ideas for how the Obama administration can reach its goal of ending child hunger by 2015.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected the first Catholic president of the United States. How did Kennedy approach religion--and what can we learn from his campaign about the role of religion in politics today? Are there parallels between Kennedy's approach to religion and Obama's? What role did Catholic and evangelical voters play in both elections? How has the politics of religion changed since 1960? Would Kennedy's response to his religious critics suffice today? Join E.J. Dionne and Shaun Casey for an illuminating and provocative discussion of Casey's new book, The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960.

Out of Exile brings the crisis in Darfur and other parts of Sudan out of the policy realm and into the lives of people who never meant to carry the label "refugees." Decades of conflicts and persecution have driven millions from their homes in all parts of Sudan. Many thousands more have been enslaved as human spoils of war. In their own words, the narrators of Out of Exile recount their lives before their displacement, the reasons for their flight, and their hopes of someday returning home.

Out of Exile includes the personal stories of 17 Sudanese people, as told to Craig Walzer, a former legal services adviser to Darfuri and other Sudanese refugees in Cairo. They describe life in the major stations on the "refugee railroads": in the desert camps of Khartoum, the underground communities of Cairo, the humanitarian metropolis of Kakuma refugee camp, and the still-growing internally displaced persons camps in Darfur.

Darwin's radical deduction that random mutation and natural selection can explain all the diversity of life on Earth shook longstanding beliefs that humans are inherently superior creatures, uniquely capable of being moral, already fully evolved, and made in the image of a perfect creator.

Since then, waves of research have expanded and strengthened Darwin's seminal observations, prompting a century-and-a-half of reflection and reassessment about the place of humankind in the universe, the relationship between humans and a divine creator, and the nature of faith itself.

Join our distinguished panelists for a conversation about the ways evolutionary theory has revolutionized our understanding of the struggle between personal freedom and the common good, and to explore the role of religious thought as humankind gradually gains the capacity to direct its own evolution.

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE:  BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country's most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community.

But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.

"The Garden" has the pulse of verité with the narrative pull of fiction, telling the story of the country's largest urban farm, backroom deals, land developers, green politics, money, poverty, power, and racial discord. The film explores and exposes the fault lines in American society and raises crucial and challenging questions about liberty, equality, and justice for the poorest and most vulnerable among us.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a provocative discussion immediately following the film.

In The Breakthrough, veteran journalist Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama's stunning presidential victory and introducing the emerging young African-American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.

The Breakthrough is an essential foundation for understanding the future of American democracy in the age of Obama. Please join the Center for American Progress for a provocative discussion around this remarkable look at contemporary politics.

Copies of The Breakthrough will be available for purchase at the event.

Transatlantic tensions were often strained during the Bush years due to disagreements over Iraq, detainee policy, the relevance of international law, and other issues. At the same time, the Atlantic Community has been faced with a growing number of security challenges—from the need to stabilize Afghanistan to the desire to prevent an Iranian nuclear capability—that require cooperation between the United States and its traditional European allies. What are the problems and prospects for strengthening the ability of the United States and Europe to improve their cooperation in meeting the pressing security challenges in the coming decade?

Please join us as The Right Honorable Des Browne MP, former UK Secretary of State for Defense, discusses the future of transatlantic security relations with Reuben Brigety, Director of the Sustainable Security Program at the Center for American Progress.

In his new book, The GET, Robert Hefner shows that civilization is experiencing the last stage of what history will record as a brief liquid energy transition between unsustainable, dirty, limited solid forms of energy to a future epoch of sustainable, clean, virtually limitless gaseous forms of energy. He believes this natural evolutionary energy transition reveals which energy sources and technologies are the most likely winners that will accelerate energy use toward a sustainable future. Hefner proposes policies that will level the economic playing field among competing energy sources and technologies, and work to accelerate the GET. He believes that by implementing policies that result in natural gas use for a major sector of our vehicle fleet as well as most non-wind and solar produced electric power by 2020, America can accomplish many of its near and mid-term energy and environmental goals.

The education community is virtually unanimous that effective teaching is critical to all other education reform efforts, and this consensus led to an increase in policies focused on improving teacher quality. One increasingly prominent strategy is the development of alternative preparation and certification programs. These programs have the potential to increase the supply of talented teaching candidates, particularly for subject shortage areas and high needs schools.

While these programs are among the most promising strategies for expanding the pipeline of talented teachers, states frequently do not have policies in place that support them. Join us for a lively conversation with our expert panelists about why rigorous alternative certification programs are needed and how state policy can be more supportive of them. The discussion will be informed by a paper by Robin Chait and Michele McLaughlin, "Realizing the Promise: How State Policy Can Support Alternative Certification Programs."