Tessera

Tessera (plural: tesserae) is an option available to children in the districts of Panem who are eligible to participate in the Hunger Games. If your family is starving, you can add your name into the reaping draw more times in exchange for tesserae. Each tessera is worth a very meager year's supply of grain and oil for one person. However, this is not enough to survive by for a year as money for rent, soap, thread and candles are needed. The entries are cumulative.

Katniss Everdeen has taken tesserae for each member of her family (herself, her mother, and her sister) every year since she turned 12, giving her three extra entries in the reaping per year.