For years there have been struggles over the gentrification of city neighborhoods in America, but what about the gentrification of food?

“Food gentrification” is a term used to describe how previously affordable and staple ingredients can suddenly become "cool," costly, and ultimately out of reach for poorer communities that once depended on them. The trend presents particular challenges for more than 41 million Americans who live in food-insecure households, according to writer and feminist, Mikki Kendall.

Kendall, who is currently working on a book called, “Hood Feminism,” says she has seen how foods and recipes that have long been part of her own family’s cultural traditions have been "elevated."

“My grandmother was a master of turning offal into delicious (meals), and I still use many of her recipes to this day,” she writes. “But now, once-affordable ingredients have been discovered by trendy chefs, and have been transformed into haute cuisine,” she adds.

This haute cuisine creates new choices around food that must be made, often between nutritional quality and caloric quantity, particularly in lower-income communities. As part of our weeklong food series, Kendall speaks with The Takeaway about her experience with food shaming and the impact these adverse selections have on different communities.  

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