Kitty takes to a new food (6)
I believe the answer is:
potato
'food' is the definition.
(potato is a kind of food)
'kitty takes to a new' is the wordplay.
'kitty' becomes 'pot' (both can mean a shared fund).
'takes' indicates putting letters inside (take can mean to capture or invade).
'new' indicates anagramming the letters.
'to'+'a'='toa'
'toa' is an anagram of 'ato'.
'pot' placed into 'ato' is 'POTATO'.
(Other definitions for potato that I've seen before include "The vegetable is just too pat" , "Would be difficult to deal with if hot" , "Spud (6)" , "The vegetable is too apt, oddly" , "Plant tuber eaten as a vegetable" .)