Loaves & Fishes’ Chris Delany dies at 90. She leaves behind a thousand daily miracles in Sacramento

The co-founder of Loaves & Fishes, one of Sacramento’s largest homeless service providers, didn’t just serve more than seven million meals across 40 years to homeless people and participate in California’s iconic civil disobedience protests leading to getting arrested more than 30 times.

Marie “Chris” Josephine Delany’s ethos helped change the perception around Sacramento’s unhoused population. It stemmed from Delany, guided by her deep Catholic faith, seeing the dignity and humanity in everyone, no matter who they were, said her friends and family.

“She probably wouldn’t think it was as important for her to be personally remembered as to have the work be remembered,” said her daughter, Rebecca MacLaren.

Delany died Sept. 3 peacefully in her sleep from natural causes. She was 90.

Loaves & Fishes started with Delany and her husband, Dan Delany, moving to Sacramento from Southern California and serving sandwiches from their car trunk starting in 1983.

“I have always thought of Loaves & Fishes as miraculous,” Chris Delany is quoted on the charity’s website. “When we started, Dan and I didn’t know how it would grow but people came to help and the guests were always fed. It was a miracle every day!”

Their small operation evolved into a 4½-acre campus in the River District providing legal services, showers, laundry, a school for homeless children and mental health counseling for nearly 1,000 adults daily, according to the charity.

Dan Delany crafted lofty visions and dreamed of expanding operations. But it was Chris who worked to bring those amorphous goals to life, said Loaves & Fishes Executive Director Angela Hassell, who added their gradual expansion downtown along North C Street happened without taking any government grants.

“It’s really difficult to be around somebody that is that inspired and that committed to this work and not also feel inspired by it,” she added.

Last year, the charity served more than 10,000 and made over 143,000 meals.

Family and friends said that commitment — sleeping in homeless encampments, working alongside labor leader Cesar Chavez, opening her home for patients diagnosed with AIDS and protesting bloody wars — weren’t done for accolades.

Every cause she championed sprung from her passion for serving others and her strong religious beliefs. She taught volunteers to see Christ in every person’s eyes at that moment and not worry about tomorrow, said Sister Libby Fernandez, Chris’ friend of 20 years. Fernandez served as Loaves & Fishes’ executive director for more than a decade before starting Mercy Pedalers, a ministry of volunteers that also helps the homeless, in 2017.

“She wouldn’t think of herself as a leader,” MacLaren, the daughter, added. “But, she kind of just was naturally.”

Beginning roots

Born Jan. 3, 1933, on a kitchen table in Altadena, Delany observed her first-generation Italian father, Salvatore Pacino, work hard as a butcher, MacLaren said.

Chris’ mother, Caroline Pacino, was a seamstress in Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Valley; Delany had two brothers, John and Jim Pacino.

A cataclysmic tragedy struck the family: John, the oldest brother, died serving in World War II, MacLaren said. Her mother was a young child when it happened.

The family didn’t know what happened to John until decades later, she added. John was killed in Operation Tiger, a rehearsal exercise for the D-Day invasion on Normandy.

In high school, Delany was the president of the drama society. She had a flair for the arts, MacLaren said. She added her mother also loved to draw.

Delany went straight to a convent after graduating from high school and soon met a priest, Dan Delany, at a retreat. They left their orders after falling in love, but never left their deep Catholic faith.

In her family, Chris Delany was a gracious host and loved to entertain her large group of diverse friends, MacLaren said.

Even when Delany was stretched thin at Loaves & Fishes, her gracious nature never wavered. MacLaren recalled how her mother cooked a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for days and became nauseated when cooking turkey once again for her family.

But it was her love language, MacLaren said, to cook for people and serve others.

“She had an eye and a feel for comfort,” MacLaren added.

‘I feel so honored to be arresting you’

Despite the gritty and tough work, Chris always found a way to make people around her laugh, Hassell said.

She added she will miss Chris’ sassy nature and her off-color remarks punctuated with a curse words.

“You wouldn’t expect someone who was a nun and a Mother Superior to use the F-word as much as she did,” Hassell said. “But, she did.”

Fernandez added she never once saw Chris get mad.

She recalled how a starstruck police officer asked for a picture with Chris after getting arrested during a protest and waiting to get booked in jail.

“I feel so honored to be arresting you,” Fernandez fondly remembered the officer saying to Chris.

A 1990 story in The Bee chronicled the Delanys’ many protests and the inevitable brushes with the law. As Bee writer Stephen Magagnini wrote at the time, “The Delanys have been arrested more than 30 times, but they still get a charge out of civil disobedience.”

“We’re s--- disturbers,” Chris Delany said then of her and Dan, who died in 2015 at the age of 80.

The Delanys’ legacy will live on through everyone the couple inspired, MacLaren said.

“We have a thousand miracles on the streets of Sacramento because of Loaves & Fishes,” Libby said.

Whenever they see a homeless person who can smile, that is a miracle, Libby said. When a homeless person gets into housing, that is a miracle.

Chris is survived by her son, John Delany; daughter, Becky MacLaren, and her husband, Carl; grandchildren Tim Delany, Erin Delany, Sara Delany and Malcolm MacLaren; and sister-in-law and friend, Sister Mary Jo Delany; as well as nieces, nephews, cousins and a wide circle of friends.

Services are scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 1066 26th St. The public is invited.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations be sent to Loaves & Fishes, 1351 N. C St., or online at sacloaves.org.