A customer comes up to Goodworks coffee shop in Chicopee and Victor Narvaez comes out from behind the counter to greet her. “Happy birthday,” Narvaez says. Across the room, the customer grabs her coffee from the to-go counter. The customer, Chelsea, looks around. She locates Narvaez and says, “Thank you”.

“Did you have a good day?”

“I had that muffin that you gave me. I warmed it up last night after dinner and it hit that spot.” Chelsea responds.

“Alright, good! Have a good one!” Victor says and with that he sends her off with her drink in hand.

Customers are constantly coming in and out of his coffee shop, Goodworks. Some of them grab their preferred drinks and get on with their day, while others order and take a seat at one of the tables inside to enjoy their breakfast in the environment.

This is the sense of community that Narvarez has built in his comfortable, cozy, and lively shop for himself and his patrons in his six years of owning it. There is a genuine connection between him and the people he continues to serve every day. Enough so that he is even able to know about and wish one of them a happy birthday on their special day.

Though the Saturday morning rush can be overwhelming, the shop is buzzing with quiet and comforting chatter. Customers are lining up at the register and placing orders while making light conversation with Narvarez. As he’s getting their orders, you can see the satisfaction on his face as he bids them farewell. He is now able to achieve exactly what he was looking for in building his community.

Goodworks is located on Center Street in Chicopee, MA, a place that was previously lacking a local coffee shop.

“The idea came where we should create our own coffee shop that Chicopee could call theirs with the idea of having people from everywhere come in and enjoy a space where we can offer local products such as in our coffee, our pastries, our food, and things like that,” Narvarez says.

It took time to build a place and environment from the ground up but after the idea was in place all that was left was the hard work.

The coffee shop makes sure to collaborate with many local businesses and Narvarez makes a point to not charge them to showcase their products, whether it is clothing or baked goods.

The back of the shop is lined with racks of clothing, which are each individually wrapped for the customers to see, so that they may be tempted to purchase them.

An online boutique was recently opened by a local designer who is a friend of Narvarez. Goodworks collaborates with this designer to create a unique shopping experience. The designer brought in her articles of clothing and set up the shop as her own boutique, but when people come in, they are able to order coffee.

Goodworks has also collaborated with Tandem Bagel Company; they provide different flavored bagels inducing Parmesan, Plain and Jalapeno. Another collaboration has been done with Bernadinos making exclusive baked goods for the coffee house.

“I am hoping that when I help someone in their journey as a business owner, that person is going to help another person, and so forth and so on,” Narvarez says.

A big part of the reason why coffee is such an important part of Narvarez’s life is the history that it holds in his family.

During the summers, he was sent to Puerto Rico to spend time with his family there, more specifically his great-grandmother, to really learn more about his culture and language. When he got there, he spent some of his time watching his great-grandmother pick the beans from the plant in her farm. He would also witness the rest of the process by which it becomes coffee. She would roast the beans, grind them, and then brew the beans into her own coffee.

“My passion for coffee comes from knowing that we have these farmers that take time to grow the plants and take time to do it,” Narvarez says.

Watching this process helped him grow his appreciation for the art of growing and making coffee.

“At that time I didn’t know how valuable that was until I grew up,” Narvaez says. “I then noticed, wow, this is art!”

The idea for the shop came from the want to do more for others.

Narvaez used to work for the Department of Children and Families before leaving his job to start up his own business; a business that gives back to the community in other ways.

There were a few shop ideas that were considered to give back but his wife kept shutting them down. At one point Narvaez decided that if he wanted to create his own shop he had to create a concrete plan not just an idea. The plan soon became to create a space where he was able to host people and provide them with good coffee and his wife was on board.

“I felt like I wanted to do something greater than the job that I had, which was awesome,” Narvaez says “I just thought there is more that I want to give.”