Cookie Kindness Box is the gift-box arm of Cookie Cookie Ice Cream, a McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania bakery built around a real, specific, deeply personal mission: providing meaningful, dignified, paid food-service work for neuro-diverse young adults.

70% of the supported staff is neuro-diverse. Every cookie box you order — custom one-time, six-month subscription, or twelve-month — funds that work directly. There’s no foundation in the middle, no separate charity arm, no fine print. The cookies are the funding model.

The story behind the bakery

Cookie Cookie Ice Cream was started by Addison and his mother Connie because of his sister, Hannah.

When Hannah was in high school, she wanted to work in food service — the kind of first job most teenagers find as a rite of passage: a counter shift, a part-time gig, a paycheck and the experience that comes with it. But Hannah is a special-needs transition student, and there wasn’t a single restaurant near her high school willing to work with transition-age students with disabilities. The places that exist in every city for typical teens — the coffee shops, the ice cream counters, the local bakeries that say “we’re hiring” — closed their doors when Hannah and her family asked.

Two years after Hannah graduated, Addison and Connie opened Cookie Cookie Ice Cream at 1815 McKees Rocks Road. They built the place that didn’t exist for Hannah: a real food-service job that trains, supports, and respects neuro-diverse young adults. Where Hannah could have worked. Where her peers can.

How the mission actually works

Cookie Cookie Ice Cream partners with Pennsylvania’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation to bring transition-age students from area schools through the bakery’s training program. Trainees learn to bake cookies, run the espresso machine, scoop ice cream, take orders, and handle a real food-service shift — the same skills any food-service worker learns, taught at a pace and with the supports each individual needs.

70% of the supported staff is neuro-diverse. The shop’s stated values — self-advocacy, community, dignity for a population frequently denied these opportunities — show up in how shifts are structured, how training happens, and how customers are greeted at the counter. Addison and Connie describe the goal simply: everyone who enters the shop leaves with a sense of comfort, inclusion, and usually a cookie or six.

Buying a Cookie Kindness Box is, mechanically, the funding source for those jobs. Not a percentage. Not a “for every box sold, X cents go to…” marketing line. The literal revenue is the literal payroll. When you choose the 12-month Dough Good Club, you’re committing to twelve months of bakery payroll. When you send a sympathy box to a friend who’s having a hard time, you’re paying someone in McKees Rocks to bake those cookies.

The bakery and the shop

The Cookie Cookie Ice Cream shop is at 1815 McKees Rocks Road, McKees Rocks, PA 15136 — just west of downtown Pittsburgh. McKees Rocks has been a working-class community for generations, and a bakery that trains and employs the next generation feels exactly right for the neighborhood. The shop sells cookies, coffee, and ice cream — the cookies are the product, the rest is the texture of running a real food-service business.

If you’re in the Pittsburgh region and want to see the operation in person, the shop welcomes visitors. The bakery’s main website has hours, events, the flavor blog, and the “Ice Cream Passport” program for the 2026 try-a-new-flavor-every-month challenge. Worth a visit if you’re nearby.

Shop the boxes that fund this

Five Cookie Kindness Box products are available on YinzMart, all baked at the McKees Rocks shop:

• 12 Cookie Box (Customize!) — the one-time, build-your-own gift box. Pick your dozen flavors. The right entry point for a sympathy package, get-well shipment, corporate thank-you, or a “thinking of you” gesture.
• Cookie Cookie Box (12 month) — twelve months of fresh-baked cookies, one box per month, billed monthly. Best per-month value across the subscription line.
• Cookie Cookie Box (6 month) — six months of monthly cookie boxes. The entry-point subscription length.
• 12 Month Dough Good Club Membership — the cookie-of-the-month-club brand, twelve-month version. The “Dough Good” name is honest: the dough is the cookies; the good is the work the dough funds.
• 6 Month Dough Good Club Membership — same Dough Good Club, six-month commitment. The right length for a half-year gift or a self-purchase that doesn’t lock you into a full year.

Whichever you pick, the math is the same: every box is real bakery payroll. Twelve months of subscription is twelve months of paychecks for trainees building careers. One sympathy box is an afternoon of work for someone learning to do that work.

Why this matters in Pittsburgh specifically

Pittsburgh has a strong small-business ecosystem and a long tradition of neighborhood bakeries — the kind of places where a kid could get a first job, a family could pick up a Sunday tray, and a regular could walk in and be greeted by name. Cookie Cookie Ice Cream is in that tradition, with one explicit addition: the next generation of bakery employees includes young adults who would otherwise have been turned away. The bakery isn’t a workaround or a charity arm; it’s a working bakery that hires the way more bakeries should.

For Pittsburgh-area shoppers, supporting Cookie Kindness Box is supporting a local employer. For shoppers outside the region, the boxes ship nationally — and the story travels with them. Every recipient who texts back “where did you get these?” is one more person who learns about the McKees Rocks shop, the OVR partnership, and the way Hannah’s high-school struggle became a place that fixes the problem.

Frequently asked questions

Is Cookie Kindness Box a charity or a business?

It’s a business. Cookie Cookie Ice Cream is a real, revenue-funded bakery and ice cream shop in McKees Rocks. The mission — hiring and training neuro-diverse young adults — is core to how the business operates, not a separate charity arm. Buying cookies funds payroll directly.

Where is the bakery?

1815 McKees Rocks Road, McKees Rocks, PA 15136 — just west of downtown Pittsburgh. Visitors are welcome.

What does “70% neuro-diverse staff” mean?

It means seven out of every ten people on the supported team are neuro-diverse — a category that includes autistic individuals, people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, and other forms of neurological difference. The bakery is structured to support that workforce: training is paced individually, the work environment promotes self-advocacy, and the team partners with Pennsylvania’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation on training pipelines.

Who is Hannah?

Hannah is Addison’s sister. She wanted to work in food service in high school and couldn’t find a restaurant near her school willing to work with special-needs transition students. The bakery was opened to be the place that didn’t exist for her.

Do the boxes ship outside Pittsburgh?

Yes — nationwide shipping is offered for most cookie selections. Some chocolate-coated cookies are seasonal due to summer shipping conditions; the bakery will note any holds at checkout. Local Pittsburgh-area pickup is also available.

How do I support the mission besides buying a box?

Visit the McKees Rocks shop, share the story, follow Cookie Cookie Ice Cream on their main website and social channels, and consider Cookie Kindness Box for corporate gifting and event catering programs. The simplest support is also the most direct: buy the cookies, eat the cookies, send the cookies.