Food Saver wins Rep. Bill Keating’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Massachusetts’ Ninth District
Rep. Bill Keating has named Tommy Duggan and Tyler Kan of Pembroke High School as the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Massachusetts’s Ninth District. Their app Food Saver serves as a mobile app that helps people cut down on food waste.
When asked what inspired the creation of Food Saver, the students said, “The idea for this app came from the huge amount of food wasted every year. People often forget about things in the fridge. They let items spoil without thinking. We thought a tool like this could lower costs. It would reduce waste at the same time. Small changes in habits can really benefit the environment. That realization kept us going. Food waste affects more than just money. It wastes resources such as energy and water. It even includes fuel used for transportation. Adding AI to create recipes from what is on hand felt clever. It made the process fun, too. We aimed to show how tech can speed up daily tasks. Meal planning becomes quicker and more efficient this way.”
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.