Three of New Jersey’s brightest computer science students, who won the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in New Jersey’s Fourth District, were honored this week at a ceremony on Capitol Hill for their creation of a new app, Food Fight.

                Selected by a panel of five judges, Ava Obara, Skye Huang, and Abigail Riddle—all from Communications High School in Wall Township, New Jersey—won the NJ-04 competition hosted by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) for Food Fight, an app that presents nutritional facts in a transparent and accessible format.

                “Congratulations to Ava Obara of Brielle, Skye Huang of Oceanport, and Abigail Riddle of Colts Neck for winning 2025’s competition with their impressive app, Food Fight. Inspired by school lunches’ lack of transparent nutritional facts, these innovative students designed an application to put healthy eating choices at students’ fingertips,” said Smith.

                Winning the selective competition qualified them for a two-day forum on Capitol Hill, where they networked with other computer science students, heard keynote remarks from members of Congress and industry leaders, and demonstrated their app in front of a live audience.

                In their application for the Challenge, the three students wrote that the purpose of Food Fight is “to make nutrition, including excessive trans-fat, sodium, and sugar, clear.” They also noted that the goal of their app is to help students to “manage their own health with delicious and nutritious school lunches” through more accessible nutritional information.

                The Congressional App Challenge is the premier prize in student computer science, inspiring and encouraging middle and high school students to pursue careers in STEM, coding, and computer science. Members of Congress have the opportunity to host district-wide Challenges, with each winning app being displayed in the U.S. Capitol Building for one year.

                “Special thanks to our esteemed panel of judges from the Ocean County App Development Team—Allison Reber, Rob Kulesza, Eric Richardson, and Craig Johnson—and John Zawadzki from Monmouth County Information Technology Services, who selected last year’s winner and assessed the software app-developing skills of students from middle and high schools across New Jersey’s Fourth District,” Smith continued.

                The 2026 Congressional App Challenge will launch on May 1, 2026. Middle and high school students from the Fourth Congressional District who are interested in participating in this year’s contest should contact Congressman Smith’s Constituent Service Center at (732) 504-0567.

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