Gabbing to folk - Dinner Lady

Recently I spoke to a lovely lady who works in the dinner school in a rural location. We were gabbing about independence and she vehemently supports it. We ended up on the topic of free school meals. I asked her how it would affect her work. She replied with concern in her voice.
Currently she overseas the menu and distribution of meals to other schools in the outlying area. Her school has three sittings just now and she worries about how her dinner ladies will cope with more numbers. She thinks this new policy is a great idea but she only heard about it from news reports. No one from head office got in touch to ask front line staff their opinions. Her concerns are about equipment, canteen size, staff numbers, time. There have already been cooks made redundant due to low pupil numbers. This is why her meals to other schools now go out in a private vehicle. (Which she has concerns about anyway and led us off on a tangent in the conversation.)
The frustration with those higher up, in charge of making decisions, was clear when she spoke about the local product sourcing policy. Arguing that she could get good deals in her town for her school and the others she oversees but head office rejected the plans as they couldn't supply the whole region. (There was some confusion on who governs this policy which led us on another tangent.) So a larger producer, further away got the contract. Which defeated the purpose in her mind. These are all issues she wants to address and hopefully she will get a positive result after further queries. It will mean she has to utilise her tenaciousness and passion for good quality, healthy food and challenge head office.
We chatted a bit more and she made a great comparison.... the bureaucratic problems she faced in work are down to needing more localised control, just like Scotland and the need for independence.

This is all purposely quite vague not because the woman in question wishes to remain anonymous but rather because I feel it keeps everything casual. As serious an issue as independence is, not everyone wants to talk about it all the time. Folk do however love to gab about what what they are up to in their lives. It's the second sentence after "Hello".... "how you doing?....What you up to?".....  I'm hoping to have a few more gabs like this with teachers, business folk and financial sector workers all from different backgrounds and all various stances on independence. For one thing I know I can do well is chat to folk.