Residents can nominate a family to receive a turkey and ham for their Thanksgiving meal by contacting Whitney Curole or sending a message to K.W.K. Crabs on Facebook.
Curole, who is known online as the Crab Man, operates K.W.K. Crabs with his family in Des Allemands. His father started the business over 30 years ago.
Curole said he hopes the giveaway helps someone going through a rough season.
“We’re really hoping that it touches somebody less fortunate, and it would mean the world for us to just bless them, you know?” Curole said. “To have them not have to pay as much for that Thanksgiving dinner or even let that be their Thanksgiving dinner.”
Residents have until Nov. 25 to nominate a family for the giveaway.
Curole, who went to Hahnville High Schools, has over 130,000 followers online, where he documents the crab business. One video, which received 1.6 million views on TikTok shows a day at the crab dock. Curole dunks the crabs into cold, icy water and then sorts them by males and females, explaining the process to online viewers.
When he first started the social media pages, his dad wasn’t on board. But then the business started seeing more buyers and a lot of customers who had found The Crab Man on social media.
“Now my dad is telling me, “Boy, you better not stop!’” Curole said of the social media pages.
The social media pages are not only a place to share about the business. Curole also shares his faith, which became an important part of his life after he met his wife, Karlee, and their daughter was born. Curole and his wife are now expecting another daughter.
“After I had my little girl, everything changed,” Curole said. “I gave my life to the Lord. She’s my greatest achievement and the biggest blessing.”
Curole said his family buys wholesale crabs from boats coming in from Venice, Morgan City and throughout the Louisiana coast. The crabs are then sold locally or shipped to businesses on the East Coast.
The Thanksgiving giveaway will include four bottles of Curole’s new all-purpose seasoning called Dock Dust. Curole now sells the seasoning online and in various stores, including Frank’s Supermarket, River Road Market, Majoria’s Supermarket, and others.
“Four months ago, I made my seasoning, and it’s really been taking off,” Curole said. “You can fry with it, put it on beans, veggies, chicken, steak, even eggs in the morning.”
He also has a fish fry and a crab boil that will be on shelves soon.
He said the family business likes to give back to the community. For Halloween, K.W.K. Crabs awarded two boxes of crabs to the winner of a crab scavenger hunt.
“We’re always doing like giveaways and stuff for our community,” he said. “We like to support our community, because God willing, we are blessed with an awesome business, so we’re really hoping [the giveaways] touches somebody less fortunate.”
He said the people of St. Charles Parish likes to support local businesses.
“It’s been a blessing to be a part of it,” Curole said.
