A Cambridge High School 10th-grader built a grocery-tracking app that a Georgia nonprofit plans to roll out across its school chapters this year.

Agasthya Chava created FreshTrack in January, using a technique called vibe coding, which lets users build software by giving artificial intelligence instructions rather than writing code line by line. The app lets families log groceries with a phone camera or voice input, tracks expiration dates and suggests recipes to use up what's on hand, Appen Media reported on Monday, Aug. 31.

Chava said the idea started at home. He recalled a forgotten container behind a milk carton in the refrigerator, an expiration date that slipped by unnoticed. He saw the same pattern playing out on a larger scale.

"At home, spoiled groceries mean wasted meals," Chava told Appen Media. "In cafeterias, unopened food gets thrown away, while local food pantries struggle with surplus items that spoil before families get to collect them."

The problem is massive. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the country's food supply goes to waste.

Chava said he chose an app because families could check their inventory at a glance instead of digging through the back of the refrigerator. FreshTrack also includes a shopping list feature to help users buy only what they need.

To get the app into more hands, Chava partnered with Helping Hands Ending Hunger (HHEH), a Georgia-based nonprofit that works with students to rescue uneaten food from school cafeterias. HHEH, founded in 2016, operates roughly 160 school chapters and says it has rescued more than 5.7 million pounds of food, according to the organization's LinkedIn page.

Carla Harward, HHEH's CEO, said Chava reached out on his own to propose the partnership. She said the app gives the nonprofit's student volunteers a hands-on tool to help families manage food at home, not just in cafeterias. Harward called Chava "an amazing student" and said HHEH plans to help him roll out FreshTrack during the current school year.

Chava and HHEH are introducing the app across the nonprofit's Georgia chapters so students can share it with their families. The exact number of Georgia chapters involved has not been disclosed.

Chava said he hopes to have FreshTrack fully live and monetized by the end of the school year, with a reach beyond Georgia.