Then the scanty supply of food was distressing: with the keen appetites of growing children, we had scarcely sufficient to keep alive a delicate invalid. From this deficiency of nourishment resulted an abuse, which pressed hardly on the younger pupils: whenever the famished great girls had an opportunity, they would coax or menace the little ones out of their portion. Many a time I have shared between two claimants the precious morsel of brown bread distributed at tea-time; and after relinquishing to a third half the contents of my mug of coffee, I have swallowed the remainder with an accompaniment of secret tears, forced from me by the exigency of hunger.
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 7. One of the biggest struggles for Jane and the other Lowood girls is against starvation, brought about by the meagre rations of food. They are barely enough to keep a delicate invalid alive. If you don’t freeze to death in Lowood, you may die of starvation there. Jane seems to swopped one abusive environment for another.