Mark 8:1

In those days
The Ethiopic version reads, on that day; as if it was on the same day that the deaf man was healed; and so it might be; and on the third day from Christ's coming into those parts; and so is very properly expressed, "in those days"; see ( Mark 7:31 ) , compared with the following verse:

the multitude being very great:
for the number of men that ate, when the following miracle was wrought, were about four thousand; see ( Mark 8:9 ) . The Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions add, "again"; referring to the former miracle of the five thousand, who were fed with five loaves, and two fishes, ( Mark 6:44 ) .

And having nothing to eat;
what they might have brought with them being expended, and they in a desert, where nothing was to be had, nor bought for money:

Jesus called his disciples to him, and saith unto them;
(See Gill on Matthew 15:32).