In escaping from famine, there's kudos (4)
I believe the answer is:
fame
'kudos' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'in escaping from famine' is the wordplay.
'escaping from' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'famine' with 'in' taken out is 'FAME'.
'there's' is the link.
(Other definitions for fame that I've seen before include "Celebrity; stage musical" , "Note" , "''... is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (Lycidas, John Milton)" , "Prominence" , "Musical - stardom" .)