The break in the chapter separates this event from the important context of the blessing of the children that proceeds it. While they are not directly connected, it is important to remember that this is a people who were tired and had been directed to go home. They had refused, and Christ stayed.
After the emotional drain of the blessing on the children, Jesus had the twelve bring bread and wine to him. He broke the bread, and blessed it. He gave to the disciples, and then to the entire congregation. We don’t have the information on how much bread and wine the disciples were to bring, but there were about “two thousand and five hundred souls” (3 Nephi 17:25) present. It is doubtful that the twelve could carry what was needed for that many people.
Therefore, we are probably seeing a repetition of the feeding of the multitude as Jesus had done in the Old World. When Jesus had earlier asked them to bring those needing to be healed, he had said: “For I perceive that ye desire that I should show unto you what I have done unto your brethren at Jerusalem, for I see that your faith is sufficient that I should heal you” (3 Nephi 17:8). Perhaps the miraculous feeding of the multitude was another fulfilment of the desire that Jesus do for them as he had done to those in Jerusalem.