- Seafood Health Benefits
- Product Descriptions
- Seafood Recipes
- Seafood Environmental News
- About Fish Tracker
KEEP IT WILDTM, through its affiliate, Crab Fresh, is your source for crab feeds, large or small. Crab Fresh
picks up directly from the fish dock, processes quickly by our experienced employees, and delivers to you
ready to eat.
We can supply many other premium seafood events with other products as well, where your aim is to serve
the highest quality of sustainably produced seafood.
Make it a Keep It Wild event today and support more than one great cause. Keep It Wild donates 1% of all income
from Seafood Events and Crab Feeds to conservation projects supporting coastal marine habitats and biodiversity.
Our products are all “Made in the USA”, supporting the livelihoods of fishermen and seafood processors here,
not overseas.
Call or email for more details or to set up your event: Toll Free: 1-855-288-WILD OR (360) 426-8000
Download our Crab Fresh How To Do A Crab Feed PDF
The traditional crab feed is a very simple seafood delight enjoyed by thousands of Americans for many years.
The best time for a crab feed is during the winter crab season, from October 1st through March 1st, or during the
summer season which generally runs over June-July. Most Crab Feeds are comprised of cooked and cleaned
(ready to eat) Dungeness crab, salad, French bread, and beverages. However you can be as creative as you
please. Dungeness crab is an excellent component to many wonderful meals. Shellfish, such as manila clams,
oysters and mussels are often included with great success and will usually enhance the earning power of
your event.
How it works
The average person will consume 1.5 pounds of cooked and cleaned crab (or 2.3 pounds of live
crab) at an all you can eat crab feed with the usual side dishes. A live crab at its peak will yield 54% to 56 % meat
when cooked, cleaned, and quartered into easy to eat sections. If you plan to have more than crab for a main
course please feel free to call, and we will help you work out the numbers.
Your setting for the event will require a large space for your tables, chairs, utensils and beverages. How fancy is
up to you. Crab Feeds happen in parks, gymnasiums or meeting halls, as well as at conventions and black tie
events. At a casual event people use large bowls for the salad and the crab, in a buffet style setting. The crab is
pre-cracked and comes ready to eat; you simply put the product in large open faced containers, lined with ice,
and set on the tables or on your buffet line.
The ticket sale price for crab feeds can range from $25 to $200 or more. This depends on the group participating,
the setting, and the goals of the organization holding the event. We can provide you with seafood products, tickets,
bibs and crab picks.
Your basic costs will be:
Hall rental including tables, chairs, utensils, garbage and clean up. Get this donated if you can. Ticket production,
promotional costs, managing money. Promotional efforts are usually grassroots word of mouth; this is superior
because it is free. Tracking ticket sales poorly can be very expensive: have a good plan for tallying up your
participant numbers with a final number at least 4-5 days prior to your event.
Food costs will vary depending what you decide to serve. This will likely be the single largest expense of your
event, so plan according to what your ticket sales prices will bear. If you have questions give us a call. We can
help you work out the costs.
Labor costs should be your lowest expense. Most events use volunteers as much as possible. You will need at
least one person to coordinate everything. You will want to decorate according to your customer base and price
per ticket. We recommend recognizing your volunteers’ efforts with a small gift or a word at your event.
How do we know if we are making money?
Controlling costs and a realistic appraisal of how many tickets for how much money you can sell is critical to
your success. First, develop a ball park number to expect for attendance. Create a menu based on your labor
and ticket price capabilities. To narrow down your food costs, determine how many average sized portions are
provided by the quantity you may order from your food purveyors.
Add any rental costs, decoration costs, clean up costs (include garbage), ticket and promotional costs, and food
costs together. Multiply by two and add five dollars per person expected. Divide this total number by your expected
number of ticket sales, and this will give you a minimum ticket sale price in order to make about $20 per ticket over
costs. Depending on volunteer labor and controlling other expenses, your ticket price should be around $25-$35
dollars. See the attached sample breakdown of costs and funds raised for a typical 300 person crab feed.
Volunteers and other donations can make a big difference. More questions? Give us a call, don’t be shy!
The above described crab feed is excellent boiler plate format for fundraising events. Feel free to create your
own event if you are looking for something a little more special.
Here are some suggestions:
Bringing your crab in live and cook them on location is more work but adds extra excitement to the event, it also
gives your attendants the freshest seafood they’ve ever had.
Adding another course or appetizer, like shellfish, will add more work but can enhance your event’s appeal to
a wider net of people. Also, shellfish prices are more economical than crab, so the overall seafood cost may be
less with a side dish of steamed clams or mussels, which can be easily prepared on-site.
Barbecued Salmon or halibut adds more work and usually more dollars. If you can sell your tickets for a higher
price you may want to consider one of these options, as people will feel better about the money they spend if they
feel they get a greater value. Like with the shellfish side course, a benefit is that people can take pleasure in the
wonderful aromas of seafood being cooked on-site. Great experiences lead to repeat events in subsequent years!
If cutting costs is your objective, or the date of your event must be in the off-season for the seafood you want to
serve, then consider using frozen product. Generally prices are lower, and our frozen products are still very high
quality. Our commercial freezer holds our crab and other seafood at -20 Farenheit, and like all our products, you
can track our frozen stock by Who caught it, When, Where, and How, so you know exactly what you are getting.
Raffles, auctions or any other fun program you can create will only enhance your event and raise you more
money. Get people smiling and your event will be a success!
Consider running a no-host bar with volunteer labor, or selling wines by the bottle at your event, as an
added fundraising source.