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Public policies have enacted legislation to increase the share of local and quality food in the French school meals. This article evaluates the challenges met by the kitchen staff while searching for those supplies, particularly in the areas far away from the urbans centers. These areas are less equipped to answer the needs of collective catering. Fewer enterprises and infrastructures are set there, which develops supply issues for the schools’restaurants. However, these rural spaces are the site of the agricultural production, revealing a paradox in the food system. Therefore, this article explores the adversities in ordering local and quality products for school meals, particularly in non-central areas, and questions this flow organization. Volumes, financial means, lack of offer mixed with the few operators’competition complexify the possibilities for a local food supply. A survey among school restaurants in a French northwestern region (Normandy) allows us to develop a reflection on the food supply organization. We interrogate the attributions conditions of the public contracts, and the role of the major mass catering procurement firms in the lack of local food supply. This case studies specifically the fish supply in 2.4. This article then asks about the scale effect : location, volumes, pooling of resources in production and logistics. Finally, the studied food flows show the interest to implant small processing tools, adapted to the needs and managed directly by the public authority.