How time flies, my life's path so far, the difficulties I've had to face, and the few milestones I've reached are really interesting. Yet I have to say that I am genuinely privileged to be counted among the beautiful people on this planet. I choose to use the term "beautiful people" because deep within me lies the strong faith that we are all beautiful, no matter who we are, the color of our skins, backgrounds, political views and traditions. Today, August 23, 2019, is exactly, 9796days of my existence on this earth, though few days but days worth living. My name is Vernon Umeh Nnanna and I want to share with you my little story about why I began Vernon Foods Nigeria Ltd. A few days ago, after I made a marketing contact for my food products, a man in his mid-fifties invited me to his office, and we had a very lengthy discussion about my company, my visions, and my reasons for starting a business. In order not to waste your time, the overview of what the man said was, "Your heartache is someone else's hope. If you get it through, someone else's going to get it through." "Tell your story". As little as his words were, after our discussion, those words never left my mind. It's actually ringing on my head like a mega sound box over the weekend. Come and think about it, storytelling has a way to connect the community we reside in with our truest intentions and motives.

I am sincerely privileged to be born in this era and moment. With numerous developments and trends going on all over the globe, I wonder what this world would be like when I'm gone. So now that I am here, my ambition is to add the little extra needed to support the sale of hygienic food products and the supply network in Nigeria. So my hope for a healthy and hygienic community and my reason for starting up a business in the food supply chain. During those days at the Polytechnic, I still remember a very close friend who fell seriously ill, even though she said I shouldn't say a word about her illness to anyone, I took her to the clinic, where we found that she had food poisoning as a result of what she ate on the roadside. If it wasn't for a timely medical intervention, my friend was crying that she was dying, and I couldn't hold back tears wondering what was going to happen if my friend died in my arms. The fear of losing one's love could be our biggest fear once in a while as we live through this world. But thank God she never died, but the effects of the night's shock and horror can never be removed. The findings of the World Health Organization show that food poisoning is a significant murderer not only in Africa but around the world. Advanced countries are taking precautionary steps to mitigate these threats as they continue to devastate the very root of our existence. In Nigeria, agencies such as NAFDAC have been set up to control the administration of food and drugs, but achieving a sustainable outcome has been an continuing fight and part of the motive for starting Vernon Foods Nigeria Ltd. Nigerian food products are ready for improvement, the harvesting, processing, transporting and selling food products are all candidates for improvement.

Because of the numerous cases of food poisoning, Vernon Foods decided to initiate "PROJECT UPLIFT". Our goal is to Uplift the Marketplace Vendors and the products they sell off the ground and onto tables. Improving the cleanliness of the food Vendors sell, and protecting the vendors clothing from dirt by having their products on tables instead of the ground is our first Hygienics Food project. Plans are underway to start a system of Table storage locations near the Marketplace. The Tables will be offered to food hawkers, market associations and trade unions. In exchange the Tables will be cleaned nightly prior to the next days use. It is a simple, logical goal, and one that is long overdue in the city of Lagos and the country of Nigeria. This brings me back to my company consultant's statement from the United States. What he said a few months ago, that Africans may not die of food poisoning because they are used to eating non-hygienic food products. Coming to believe that his statement might hold some atom of reality is an understatement, because come to think about it, our forefathers have grown old, some have died in their 80's and 100's, yet little progress was made in food processing at the time. What did they do to overcome food poisoning?

My grandfather was an uneducated farmer who died when he was 106 years old. Although crude and uneducated, he still managed to live for a long time. While someone would say that they had a way to process and maintain their food by washing it with salt and warm water that most of us still do in this part of the world, Vernon Foods is set up to add the little extra that we still lack in Nigeria's food market. This little extra is our value proposition and will be unfolding as we progress. So, I'm urging all readers to support this project, together let's uplift market vendors and their food products from the ground and onto tables thereby developing a hygienic Nigerian society