Courses Taught:

Nutrition & Wellness, Resource Management

Teaching students to raise and grow their own food has shown to promote healthier eating habits. By learning these skills in the garden, students gain the power to improve their homes and communities by fighting obesity and poverty. Whether students are planting a seed or watching a chick hatch, they are practicing patience, determination and problem solving skills.  

This term, students will participate in many hands-on activities connecting nutrition, wellness, science, technology and the management of resources to our school farm. Here at CHHS we have gardens for vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers. We incubate and raise chickens, guineas, turkeys, quail and ducks. We raise rabbits to fertilize our gardens, as well as, compost and vermicompost. We also have a miniature pig and dairy goats.  They will teach the students about raising livestock for food production.

Teaching students to prepare and cook their own food allows them to make more economical food choices while understanding the ingredients in the product and being able to choose how it will be prepared. Students will view several cooking demonstrations and videos that show different cooking methods and utensils. When they are familiar with these skills and tools, they are more comfortable with attempting more complex recipes.

Please feel free to contact me at any time will any questions or concerns. I am looking forward to meeting each and every one of you! This is going to be an amazing school year!

Angel Pilcher graduated Cum Laude from the University of Memphis in 1999 with degrees from the colleges of Education and Business. After graduation she pursued careers in fine dining, merchandising, and retail management. In 2006, Pilcher began her career in education while incorporating her experiences from the industry into her Family and Consumer Sciences classroom. She received her National Board Certification in 2020 and has served on the State Textbook Rating Committee, Mississippi State University's Research and Curriculum Unit (RCU) Curriculum Revision Team, Educator Advisory Board for the Federal Reserve, DeSoto County Teacher Advisory Council and Mississippi Teacher Advisory Council. She works with Junior Achievement and the DeSoto Economic Council in order to stay in touch with the needs of the community, local industry and to prepare students for future careers. At Center Hill High School, Pilcher is a sponsor for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA). She has served as a freshman sponsor and an assistant cross-country coach. She is also a project manager for MSU's RCU department while serving as mentor and new teacher trainer. At Center Hill, she has developed a Farm and Garden program that serves as an extension to her classroom and lab facilities and has worked with the elementary Spotlight classes to incorporate her program into their curriculum.  Projects through her Farm and Garden program have been featured in several publications throughout the state and nation. She has represented the state of Mississippi at the National Ag in the Classroom Conference in Kansas City, MO and the On the Farm STEM Event in Ft. Worth, TX. Pilcher has received Teacher of the Year awards from Farm Bureau in 2016; the Mississippi Association of Family and Consumer Sciences in 2017; the Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Districts in 2018; and from Center Hill High School in 2019.