Yard2Yum wins Rep. Lori Trahan’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Massachusetts’s Third District
Rep. Lori Trahan has named Reya Kannan of Chelmsford High School as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Massachusetts’s Third District. Their app Yard2Yum connects farms, restaurants, and composting facilities to reduce food waste, support local agriculture, and foster a more sustainable and environmentally responsible food system.
When asked what inspired the creation of Yard2Yum, Reya Kannan said, “While working at my dad’s restaurant, I saw firsthand how much food went to waste every single day. Perfectly good fruit and vegetable scraps would be thrown away and later picked up by expensive disposal services, which hurts business financially. Watching this waste pile up was frustrating, but there didn’t seem to be a better solution. This experience made me think more broadly about the food system, specifically how farms were doing across the U.S. After talking to a few farms in New England, one in Massachusetts told me that compost prices were rising, making it harder for them to sustain production. That’s when I realized there was an opportunity to connect the two sides: restaurants with food waste, and farms in need of compost. Through Y2Y, I was able to build a system where restaurants can turn what used to be trash into compost, supporting farmers and creating a more sustainable food cycle.”
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.