Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03) announced Reya Kannan, a Tyngsborough native and 11th grader at Chelmsford High School, as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Massachusetts’ Third Congressional District. Her app, “Yard2Yum,” offers a practical and innovative solution to food waste by connecting restaurants, farms, and composting facilities.

“Every year, the Congressional App Challenge highlights the incredible creativity and talent of students across our district, and Reya’s work truly stands out,” Congresswoman Trahan said. “Yard2Yum is not only an impressive technological achievement, but also a thoughtful response to a real challenge facing communities across our region. Reya took an issue she saw up close, learned from local farmers and small businesses, and built a tool that supports sustainability and strengthens our local food system. I’m proud to recognize her as this year’s Congressional App Challenge winner.”

“Creating Yard2Yum allowed me to build a viable solution for a problem I'm passionate about -food waste across many communities,” Reya said. “Through the Congressional App Challenge, I was able to turn my ideas into an actual app, combining coding and stem to create impact.”

Yard2Yum is designed with two main interfaces: one for restaurants and one for farms. Restaurants can track the amount of food waste they donate, schedule pickups, and earn reward points based on pounds donated. These points can then be used to purchase locally sourced products from participating farms. On the other side of the platform, farms can access compost generated from restaurant food waste and sell their produce directly through the app. This creates a reliable channel for farms to connect with local restaurants and strengthen their businesses.

Reya was inspired to create the app after working at her father’s restaurant, where she saw large amounts of food scraps thrown away each day and noticed the financial burden of costly disposal services. Her curiosity about the broader food system led her to speak with farms across New England. One Massachusetts farmer shared that rising compost prices were making it difficult to maintain production. Recognizing the opportunity to bridge these challenges, Reya developed Yard2Yum to convert discarded food into compost that supports farmers while reducing waste and creating a more sustainable local food cycle.

About the Congressional App Challenge:

Trahan invited Yumio Saneyoshi, the founder of the Penguin Coding School in Acton, and members of his team to judge this year’s competition. The Congressional App Challenge began in 2013, and since then, the challenge has inspired more than 40,000 students across all 50 states to program an app.

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