2024 CLASS Community Heroes Awardee - Connie Feda

Meet Connie Feda, a true visionary and advocate for inclusion. When it comes to inclusion, if Connie sees a need or gap, she has done her best to fill it. As the founder of Cookie Cookie Ice Cream, Connie creates delectable treats using premium ingredients and heirloom recipes. But her journey began much earlier.

When her daughter Hannah was just eight years old, she noticed the lack of representation in dolls. Inspired by Hannah’s question, “Why aren’t there any dolls that look like me?” Connie launched Dolls for Downs, creating and mass-manufacturing beautiful dolls that celebrated diversity and inclusivity. These dolls have since reached homes across the world.

As Hannah grew older, Connie faced another challenge: finding suitable training for Hannah in the food service industry that accommodated her specific learning style. Not one to shy away from obstacles, Connie co-founded Cookie Cookie Ice Cream with her son, Addison Fox, in September 2022. Here time, is a flexible concept, and the emphasis is on accomplishing tasks, no matter how long it takes.

The innovative approach of Cookie Cookie Ice Cream extends beyond its menu. The program collaborates with the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation and Bender Leadership Academy to employ part-time young adults with disabilities, providing them with valuable work experience in a supportive environment.

Since its inception, Cookie Cookie Ice Cream has trained students with disabilities to make and sell cookies, ice cream, and coffee. Connie believes in the importance of integrating people with disabilities into the community through functional and meaningful employment. As she puts it, “It’s incredibly relevant and important to put people with disabilities in the community with a job in actual, functional ways.”

Most recently, Connie participated in Inglis Impact Accelerator and Pitch Your Niche competition, winning the overall award of $10,000. She hopes to purchase a food truck to not only bring the community delicious treats on the go, but to serve and employ young adults through the program.



Community Living and Support Services (CLASS) is a nonprofit that provides Home and Community-Based Services to older adults and people with disabilities in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. CLASS is driven by organizational values that foster community inclusion for people with disabilities. We are working toward a community #WhereEachBelongs.

CLASS is driven by organizational values that foster community inclusion for people with disabilities. The organization offers a variety of individualized services ranging from independent living skills training in the classroom to community-based case management for social, recreational, and residential supports.