Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up,
“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
“lad” (KJV) = “boy” (NIV) is a double diminutive meaning “little boy.”
“barley loaves” = the cheapest and inferior type of bread. The boy was poor. Barley loaves were small and the fish were probably the size of sardines. There was only enough food to satisfy the hunger of a small boy.
Jesus can use our meager resources to do amazingly more than we could ever imagine.