AllergyChef wins Rep. Dale Strong’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Alabama’s Fifth District.
Rep. Dale Strong has named Ellie Chan of James Clemens High School as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Alabama’s Fifth District. Their app AllergyChef allows users to create allergy-free shopping lists and meal plans, finds alternatives to products containing allergens, and identifies allergies present in grocery items.
When asked what inspired the creation of AllergyChef, Ellie Chan said, “I myself have been troubled with lots of food allergies, and not common ones to begin with. For the longest time, I wanted an app on the web where I could quickly type in a product and see whether it was allergen-free or not without having to scan through a horrendously-long list of ingredients; I wanted to have meal ideas that didn’t involve allergens so I wouldn’t have to eat the same things over and over again (at this point, my diet has been white rice, cabbage, and carrots).”
The 2025 Congressional App Challenge marked another record-setting year for the program. A total of 394 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives hosted App Challenges in their congressional districts, the highest level of participation in the program’s history. More than 13,800 students from across the country participated, submitting over 4,600 original apps focused on real-world challenges ranging from health and accessibility to education, sustainability, and civic engagement.
The Congressional App Challenge is an official initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives that encourages middle school and high school students to learn to code, explore computer science, and build practical technology solutions for their communities. Each participating Member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and winning teams are invited to showcase their projects to Members of Congress, staff, and industry leaders at the annual #HouseOfCode celebration on Capitol Hill.
The Challenge is proudly bipartisan and reflects a shared commitment to expanding access to STEM education and preparing the next generation of American innovators for the future workforce. The program is a public-private partnership made possible through funding from the Broadcom Foundation, AWS, Infosys Foundation USA, theCoderSchool, Apple, and others.
The 2026 Congressional App Challenge will launch in May, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.