Savery Wins Rep. Clark’s (MA-05) 2019 Congressional App Challenge

Rep. Katherine Clark has named a Weston student as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Massachusetts 5th district. Gann Academy’s Debbie Lilly submitted Savery, an app designed to educate people on food waste.  

When asked why they were passionate about creating an app that prevents food waste the student replied, “A few years ago in English class, I was told to write about an issue in the world about which I cared, and I decided to write about food waste. After many hours of research, I learned so much about the realities of food waste, and its correlation to worldwide hunger.” The student hopes to encourage other students to better their communities by using their computer science skills.  

Over 10,000 students registered for the 2019 Congressional App Challenge. These students created and submitted 2,177 functioning apps, marking the end of the most successful Congressional App Challenge to date. All told, 304 Members of Congress hosted Congressional App Challenges in their districts across 48 states, Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands, and Washington, D.C.

The CAC is an initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Members of Congress host contests in their districts for middle school and high school students, encouraging them to learn to code and inspiring them to pursue careers in computer science. The non-profit Internet Education Foundation provides the CAC with supplemental staffing and support. In the five years of the Congressional App Challenge, the program has yielded 1134 App Challenges across 48 states. Thousands of functional apps have been created by over 25,000 students, and participant demographics surpass all industry diversity metrics.