Buss is president and chief executive officer of Martha’s Table, a community-based nonprofit organization that fights poverty in the District through providing food, clothing and educational services. Buss worked as a lawyer with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher before joining Martha’s Table in 2000. The organization celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
What made you decide to make the switch from attorney to president of a nonprofit?
It wasn’t whether I was going to go to community service, it was trying to figure out how I wanted to have an impact. I kind of analyzed a lot of the different areas in which I worked in terms of community service, and homelessness and children and youth were two areas that really interested me.
How is Martha’s Table different from other nonprofits in the area?
Martha’s Table is unique in its combination of services. We find solutions to poverty in the short term with food and clothing and in the long term with education and family support services.
What’s your favorite part of working here?
It’s that every day, the energy that the kids bring to this place — coming to learn — and the energy that the volunteers and the staff bring — coming to serve. It’s the opportunity to be around this great group of people that are building a community.
How did the recent snow affect the programs?
Well, we stayed opened every day. … One of the things that was really neat was that people in the community just kind of poured out to help us, whether it was helping us provide food or shoveling snow so that people could get to our door and so we could get our vans out to go feed people.
What’s the best dish at Martha’s Table?
I think it’s probably our Thanksgiving dinner. It’s almost like this potluck dinner that emerges on this massive scale.
– Kaitlin Schluter
