The United States government will partially fund food benefits for low-income Americans after two judges ruled the programme must continue amid a languishing government shutdown , US President Donald Trump’s administration has said.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – the country’s flagship food aid scheme, serving one in eight Americans each month – was set to freeze on November 1, after the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on October 10 that it would not be able to fund the programme if the shutdown continued.

On Friday, federal judges in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island doled out separate but similar rulings that told the federal government to cover the benefits by drawing from contingency funds.

SNAP, known colloquially as food stamps, co

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