16 year old Greek develops an AI platform that helps schools reduce food waste
Konstantinos M., who was awarded with one of the special prizes at the 2026 edition of the European programming competition Youth Hacking 4 Freedom. His software allows to predict how much food will go uneaten before it is even cooked, helping to cut down leftovers.
The European programming competition Youth Hacking 4 Freedom (YH4F) presented the six winning projects of its fifth edition this weekend in Brussels. This contest, organised annually by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), allows young Europeans between the ages of 14 and 18 years old to bring their own ideas to life, with only one rule: the software must allow anyone to use it for any purpose, to study how it works, to share it with others and to improve it.
SmartFoodSave is a Free Software AI-powered platform that helps schools cut down on food waste by predicting how much food will go off uneaten before it’s even cooked. Staff log their daily menus, attendance, and portions, and a machine learning model estimates likely leftovers, while smart meal matching and nutrition checks help to plan menus, and a built-in donation finder points surplus food towards people who can use it before it expires or rots.
Konstantinos M. wanted an end-to-end solution: a web dashboard for staff, a mobile app, and a back-end that ties it all together, tackling a problem that wastes money, resources, and perfectly good meals, while others go hungry. Developed under the MIT license, any school, non-profit, or developer can use it at no cost, inspect how it works, adapt it to their own menus and local needs, and improve it for everyone. While Konstantinos is the young engineer behind it, he is now developing the project further with a help of a friend who is taking care of the front-end and UX design.
“Young generations are aware of food waste and want to help to tackle this problem. That is why this teenager developed the SmartFoodWaste solution. Youth Hacking 4 Freedom empowered Konstantinos to learn by building a tool that is important for him and that can share with his community. He had the opportunity to contribute to reduce food wasting, by saving food", explains Bonnie Mehring.
Youth Hacking 4 Freedom and the FSFE
For six months, Youth Hacking 4 Freedom supports young people as they develop their own ideas, either individually or in teams. Along the way, they learn about licensing, project management, and documentation, and become familiar with the free software ecosystem, acquiring tools they can apply in future academic and professional experiences.
At the end of the programming period, a jury of experts evaluates the projects and selects the six winners. The prizes, ranging from 1,024 to 4,096 euros, are awarded in Brussels at a ceremony attended by the young winners accompanied by one of their parents.
One of the FSFE’s long-term goals is for young people to have the opportunity to experiment and program with free software as the default option. Those who learn this way not only acquire a technical skill but also develop the habit of asking how the things they use work and of not taking them for granted.