The phrase “Crumbs from the Table of Joy” is adapted from “Luck” (1947), a short poem by Langston Hughes:

Sometimes a crumb falls

From the tables of joy,

Sometimes a bone

Is flung

To some people

Love is given,

To others

Only heaven (Hughes, Langston. “Luck.” Poetry Society of America).

The poem that suggests that some people sit at the table for the feast of love, while others don’t. Those who only get crumbs have to hope for a more satiating afterlife. This applies to the Crump family, linked to the poem and the play’s title through their near-identical name, as they scramble for hope in the aftermath of Sandra’s death.

Food represents safety and survival, as well as love and care. In the play’s opening monologue, Ernestine talks about well-wishers bringing the family memories of their mother, some of which were centered on food and even food poisoning. Ernestine describes their grief for their mother as relentless nausea, “tugging at our stomach and our throats” (5), which doesn’t let up until they move to New York. In a metaphorical sense, Godfrey pulls them away from their immense mourning to keep them from starving to death. In New York, he hangs a photo of their mother, who can no longer keep her family fed, and of Father Divine, whom Godfrey now trusts to feed them.